The three hour sermon on God, sin and salvation, by Paul Kanamori

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THE

THREE HOUR

3ERM0N

PAUL KANAMORT

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PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY
PRESENTED BY

DelavsJi L, Pierson

BV 3797 .K3 1920
Kanamori, Paul
The three hour sermon on
God, sin and salvation

THE THREE HOUR SERMON

^'

THE THREE HOUR
SERMON

ON

God^ Sin and Salvation

BY

PAUL' KAN AMORI

JAPANESE EVANGELIST

With Foreword By

ROBERT E. SPEER

New York Chicago

Fleming H. Revell Company

London and Edinburgh

G)p>Tight, 1920. by
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY

New York: 158 Fifth Avenue
Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave.
London: 21 Paternoster Square
Edinbtirgh: 75 Princes Street

FOREWORD

MR. KANAMORI preaches a gospel
which he knows and lives. His pres-
ent work in Japan is unique in its
character and its influence. A remarkable
personal experience lies behind it, and no one
can doubt that the power of the Spirit of God
is in it.

His Christian faith began in Kumamoto in
the island of Kyushu nearly fifty years ago.
Captain Janes, an American army officer, at
the request of the ex-daimyo of Higo had pro-
vided a school in his capital of Kumamoto.
By his words and by the example of his loving
conduct Captain Janes from the first " enlisted
the hearts of the students for Christianity.*'
In his History of Protestant Missions in Japan,
Ritter gives a brief account of the founding
of the Kumamoto Band, drawn largely from
what Mr. Kanamori, who was one of its mem-
bers, reported:

" Ever}' Saturday evening he read the Bible
with his pupils. At first they only took part
in order to learn English and in order to criti-

6 FOREWORD

cize * the Christian teaching ; but finally it con-
quered us/ * He used to ask us to relate to the
lower classes of the people in Japanese what we
had learned out of the English Bible/ At last
thirty of them entered into a sacred covenant,
in which they dedicated themselves solemnly to
Christ as His servants, and promised to re-
nounce the worship of idols. In connection
with the hostility against all innovations,
against foreigners and Christians, which had
raged since 1873 through Kyushu, this small
band had to undergo persecution and severe
trials, now through the mockery and hatred of
their fellow-students, who were otherwise
minded, and now through the anger of their
troubled parents. Some of them indeed were
compelled to leave Kumamoto, and Kanamori,
after his return home, paid for his steadfast-
ness by being confined to his house for several
weeks.

"About twenty of this band broke their
vow, but ten of these renewed it again and
showed, together with the ten who remained
faithful, and ten others who afterwards joined
the band, that a Japanese knows how to suffer
for what he has learned to be true."

There is a fuller account of the Kumamoto
Band in Dr. M, L. Gordon's An 'American

FOREWORD 7

Missionary in Japan. I heard one of its mem-
bers at Northfield thirty years ago tell the story
of the band and of the night on the hilltop
when they took their pledge to their new faith
and signed it in their blood :

*' We have lately studied the Christian re-
ligion, and are greatly impressed with its truth.
We therefore want to spread it through our
country, and in this endeavour we will regard
our lives but dust and ashes. By writing our
several names we do hereby solemnly swear to
the sincerity of our intentions. Amen."

These men were the main founders of the
Kumiai or Congregational Churches in Japan
and some of them, Ebina, Miyagawa, Harada,
and Kanamori, are today, after a lapse of half
a century, among the outstanding leaders of
Japanese Christianity. From Captain Janes's
School they went to the Doshisha as the first
theological students and thence passed out into
the pastorates of the strongest Kumiai Congre-
gations. Mr. Kanamori became minister of
one of the leading churches in Tokyo.

In the early nineties, however, a tide of
reaction and rationalism set in in Japan and
many of the Kumamoto Band were carried
away, Mr. Kanamori was then a professor
of theology. One of the missionaries in Japan
wrote two years ago of what befell him:

8 FOREWORD

" He began to read upon the most recent
German theology, with the result that he was
completely swept off his feet by the rational-
istic New Theology, Higher Criticism, etc.
Not long after that he published his new views
under the title The Present and Future of
Christianity in Japan, and retired from the
ministry. The rationalistic German mission at
that time asked him to come over and work
with them, but he could not bear to devote
himself to breaking down what his former col-
leagues were trying to build up, and preferred
to give himself to lecturing on thrift, which he
did for many years with conspicuous success.

" He remained in this state of spiritual dark-
ness for twenty years, until the death of his
wife brought him and his children into great
trouble, but after passing through these deep
waters he came out again with a clear and firm
belief in the old-fashioned gospel. He told me
that he had arranged his affairs so as to pro-
vide for his family, and now had determined
to devote the remaining years of his life to
preaching the simple gospel throughout the
country, as he had once preached the principles
of economy.

" Shortly before he came to speak for us
he had completed a book of one hundred and
eighty pages, in which the whole Gospel is

FOREWORD 9

presented in the simplest possible language.
Any Japanese who can read at all can under-
stand this book. I read it through and was
astonished that Japanese could be made so
simple and at the same time so clear and force-
ful. I think it must be the simplest Japanese
that ever was printed. No one but a master
could have written so simply. It is said that
when he had finished the first draft he read it
all to a primary school boy and that he altered
all the passages which the boy failed to grasp.
He did not tell me this him.self, but it may well
be true.

" The contents of it are to me more surpris-
ing than the style. The book takes its stand on
the Holy Scriptures in both Old and New
Testaments with the same confident appeal
that a man might make who never had heard
of any * new thought.' No Dutch dominie
could state the central doctrines of our re-
ligion in a more absolutely orthodox, scrip-
tural, and evangelical manner than they are
given in this little book. In addition to that,
it is interesting, and thoroughly adapted to the
common people in Japan. The man who wrote
it evidently knows his countrymen.*'

Mr. Kanamori has set out now on a unique
evangelistic mission with a method all his own.

lo FOREWORD

He has condensed the presentation of the
essentials of the Christian faith into one three-
hour sermon. The first hour is devoted to the
Christian doctrine of God, the second to sin,
and the third to salvation. This sermon he
preaches every night to a different congrega-
tion. Those who hear it once are requested
not to return, but to send their friends. This
sermon Mr. Kanamori has preached more than
800 times to over 300,000 people, on the
Pacific Coast, in Japan, and in Hawaii. It is
his practice to see no one in the afternoons,
but after luncheon to give himself to prayer
and fasting in preparation for the evening,
and after the sermon to call for immedi-
ate decisions of acceptance of the Chris-
tian faith. Of the 300,000 who have heard,
approximately 50,000 have responded to his
appeal.

Of Mr. Kanamori^s manner of preaching,
Dr. S. H. Wainright wrote an interesting ac-
count in the Japan Advertiser of February 11,
1919, describing the evangelistic meetings
which Mr. Kanamori was conducting under
the auspices of the Fujimicho Presbyterian
Church in Tokyo, whose pastor, the
Rev. M. Uemura, is one of the ablest
and most remarkable Christian leaders in
Asia :

FOREWORD II

" Though he has reached the age of sixty-
three," wrote Dr. Wainright, " Mr. Kanamori
is most strenuous in his activity. He is ex-
tremely plain and unconventional in manner
and dress. He does not wear the frock coat so
indispensable to the public speaker in Japan,
nor has he that stiffness of manner so char-
acteristic of those who affect Confucian pro-
prieties. He held up a copy of the Scriptures
before the audience as a * basis ' of all he had
to say and as a ' book not written in the high
style of the Confucian Classics but in the lan-
guage of the people.* There is little action in
the ordinary discourse of a Japanese preacher,
which is to say that there is little of the force
and vividness of the dramatic in his speech. So
slight is the dependence upon movements of
the body to aid in expression that gesticula-
tion with the hands even is used with great
restraint. But the ardour of Mr. Kanamori is
too whole-souled for him to be held within
such limits; yet there was a self-possession in
his manner truly characteristic of the Japa-
nese. Any one witnessing his quiet mastery of
the audience Sunday evening would be com-
pelled to admit that the use of violent propa-
ganda is not inherent in the religious senti-
ment. It would have been equally as clear
that reasoning as well as dogmatic affirmation

12 FOREWORD

can have weight with the multitudes. The
speaker held to certain broad truths which he
made real to the imagination by means of
concrete illustrations, and at times he rose to
the height of passion as when speaking of
national evils. But it was a reasoned discourse
from beginning to end. Ideas played a more
prominent part than the emotional element; a
fact to be explained not only by the preponder-
ance of non-Christians in the audience, but also
by the circumstances that ideas figure more
prominently in the public speech in the east
than in the west, where instruction rather than
oratory has been the form of discourse. Yet
at times the emotions of his audience were
raised to a heightened degree of intensity, as
for example when he gave an account of the
death of Christ by crucifixion, suffering a vi-
carious death. The description was unsur-
passed in the vivid and pathetic reality of the
picture and of its significance. The suggestive
power of the speaker^s words was made more
effective by the intensity of his own conviction.
" My feeling was that Christianity in Japan
had reached a new phase in the preaching of
Mr. Kanamori. The story of the cross, the
singular fascination of which has been so ir-
resistible as told in the language of many races
and nations, has found living expression, with

FOREWORD 13

moral power, in the colloquial speech of the
Japanese people. Many of Mr. Kanamori's
illustrations, as for example the covenant of
the 47 Ronin sealed injblood, were drawn from
the native environment. That the platform
Sunday evening succeeded in overcoming the
gulf between the Christian message and the
popular soul was rendered evident by the fact
that 673 persons in the audience decided to
enter upon the Christian life."

Many who have heard of Mr. Kanamori's
sermon but who do not understand Japanese
have been anxious to hear or read it in Eng-
lish. They have wanted to know how an able
Japanese with such an experience as Mr. Kana-
mori's would put the Christian message. Mis-
sionaries in other lands have expressed a desire
to see it as an exhibit in Christian apologetics,
in co-operative religion and in evangelistic
method. Mr. Kanamori, who knows English
well, has himself written out the sermon in
English and it is now made available to all.
I trust that it may have a wide circulation.
All proceeds from its sale received by Mr.
Kanamori will serve to enable him to carry
on more widely his present most fruitful work.
It is his ambition, he says, to preach orally to
3,000,000 of his countrymen and to reach

14 FOREWORD

17,000,000 more by printed copies of his ser-
mon. Thus single-handed he would offer the
Gospel to one-third of the people of Japan.
He holds that this is a day of unlimited oppor-
tunity and that there is no reason whatsoever
why Japan cannot be evangelized in this gen-
eration.

Robert E. Speer.

CONTENTS

Preliminary Introduction ... 19

Part I Concerning God ... 33

Part II Concerning Sin . , , (y^j

Part III Concerning Salvation . 107

PRELIMINARY INTRODUCTION

THREE HOUR SERMON

ON

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION

PRELIMINARY INTRODUCTION

THIS is a theatre. It is therefore
usually a place of amusement. But to-
night we have changed it into a Chris-
tion church in order that we may hold a
religious service in place of a dramatic per-
formance.

It is a custom among us Christians, as you
doubtless know, to offer prayer to our God at
the beginning of such a service. God is every-
where. He is with us here this evening. And
now as I speak to Him in prayer, invoking His
blessing upon this meeting, will you kindly
keep perfectly quiet and give me your help
either by silently offering your own prayer
with mine or at least by keeping yourselves in
a prayerful mood?
Let us pray,

19

20 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

PRAYER

Almighty God, Creator of heaven and earth,
we thank Thee for this great gathering of the
people tonight to hear from the lips of Thine
unworthy servant the wondrous gospel of Thy
Son Jesus Christ. We beseech Thee, our
Heavenly Father, that Thou wilt give Thy
servant wisdom and power from above that
he may be able truthfully and impressively to
present the gospel of Christ in its purity and
simplicity. Help him to be bold and fearless
in proclaiming Thy truths to those who need
them.

We pray Thee, our Father, that Thou wUt
pour out Thy Holy Spirit upon this great con-
gregation. And, now, open Thou their spir^
itual ears and let them hear not the voice of
man but the voice of God. Open their spiritual
eyes and let them see not merely the things
n^hich are visible to the natural eye but thes
things also which are invisible. May their
hearts be opened and may they receive the light
from heaven and being enlightened by it, may
they be able to find out for themselves that they
are great /sinners in the sight of God. And
thus being convicted of sin may they be drawn
to the cross of Jesus Christ the blessed Saviour
of the world. Oh Father, let these people

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 21

know that there is none other God beside Thee,
Thou art the only true and living God of the
universe. Show thyself to them here and now,
and let them see Thy glory and be saved. We
ask this in the precious name of Thy only Son
Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

THE A B C OF CHRISTIANITY

My friends, the subject of my discourse to-
night is, What is Christianity, or what is the
true nature of the religion of Jesus?

In this congregation I beHeve there are many
Christians, and many others who have known
for some time more or less about the Chris-
tian religion. But I feel sure that there are
also very many in this audience who have not
yet become acquainted with the teachings of
this great religion and who tonight for the
first time in their lives will hear a Christian
sermon. And be it understood from the start
that my talk this evening is for this last-named
class of hearers only. Because tonight I pro-
pose to speak about the fundamental truths of
Christianity, the ABC of the Christian re-
ligion.

Therefore to many present my talk may con-
tain nothing that is really new, and to such I
fear it may prove quite uninteresting. Still I
believe that the whole of Christianity is con-

22 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

tained in these fundamental truths just as an
oak tree is contained in an acorn. Therefore,
if you understand these fundamentals thor-
oughly you can grasp all the teachings of the
Christian religion. So I feel that it is very
important for those who wish to know what
Christianity is to have first of all a clear con-
ception of these primal truths. I hope you all
will be kind enough to listen patiently to my
talk on these first principles of Christianity.

WHY so FEW CHRISTIANS IN JAPAN

You all know that in this country of ours
the Christian religion has secured as yet but a
very small number of followers compared with
other religions. There are only a little over
one hundred thousand Christians of all the
various Protestant denominations. That is
indeed a very small proportion of our people.

The whole population of Japan proper at
present is about sixty millions. Therefore the
^^'^'/^proportion of Protestant Christians to the en-
tire population is but one in six hundred. And
I think the first and most important reason
why there are so few Christians in Japan is
that the larger part of our people have not yet
had an opportunity of having the gospel of
Christ presented to them. They have never
heard Christian sermons nor read Christian

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 23

books. They do not know what the Christian
religion is. They are ignorant of the teach-
ings of Christ. People can not believe in a
religion about which they know nothing.
Without a knowledge of the true nature of
the religion of Christ how can they believe?
Unless some one goes to them and preaches
the gospel to them how can they know it?
So I should say that this ignorance of our
people as to the true nature of Christianity
is the main reason why they do not believe in
it, and why there are so few Christians in the
country.

But there is yet another reason which has .,->
kept back our people from believing in Chris- T
tianity. It was not simply because they did
not understand it, but because they were afraid
to have anything to do with it. They had
been taught to hate it and had come to despise
its very name.

You know that for many centuries before
the Restoration of 1868 Christianity was
strictly prohibited in our country. All who
professed to be Christians ran the risk of suf-
fering capital punishment. I remember the
time when we used to see the government
notice boards set up in various places, stating
that " Belief in the evil religion of Christ is
strictly forbidden by order."

24 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

I have seen many times people trampling
upon the cross of Christ by order of govern-
ment officials. This was called picture tram-
pling, because people were ordered to trample
upon a picture of Jesus upon the cross. It was
a great occasion and was counted as one of
the great festivals of the year. If any one
refused to step upon the picture he would be
arrested on the spot and thrown into prison.
Even after the Restoration there were found
many Christians in the prisons in various parts
of the country. No wonder Japanese people
at large should be afraid of believing in a re-
ligion thus despised.

Although at the present time there is no such
barbarous law on the statute books of Japan,
yet the odium of the olden time prohibition
still attaches to the name of the religion of
Jesus. So you see it is of the first importance
that these prejudices be removed by teaching
our people the true nature of the Christian
religion, and helping them to see for them-
selves its lasting truth and beauty.

THE TRUE MOTIVE OF PREACHING

I am now a Christian, and I am preaching
Christianity to my fellow countrymen. But
at first I did not like this new religion. I be-
lieved with the rest of my countrymen that it

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 25

was a false faith and that the introduction of
such an evil religion into our beloved country-
would be a great misfortune. I thought it the
duty of all patriots to oppose in every way the
spread of such a religion in our country.

When I really heard Christian preaching
and read the Bible and studied it carefully, I
came to the conclusion that Christianity is not
only a good religion but it is the best religion,
in fact the only true religion in the world.
Its introduction into our country is not only
useful but urgently necessary. Without its
teachings no country can ever become truly
civilized, powerful and righteous.

Now, you know, when we have found any-
thing good and profitable to our people and our
country it is our highest duty to tell it to our
fellow countrymen, and share with them the
benefits thereof. On the other hand, when we
have found anything bad and harmful to our
fellow countrymen it is also our paramount
duty to warn them of it. We must share with
our fellow countrymen our knowledge of all
things good or bad. This is true patriotism.

My friends, this is the only motive which
impels me to preach Christianity to my coun-
trymen. I am not preaching for my own
profit. Please do not misunderstand me on
this point.

26 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

My one and only object in preaching tonight
is to give you an opportunity to examine and
understand the true nature of the Christian re-
ligion, and accept it for your own sake. That
is all and nothing else. Therefore, after hear-
ing me tonight, if you feel that you are con-
vinced of the truth and the worth of the Chris-
tian religion, I earnestly urge you to accept it
now and become a follower of Jesus Christ.
But if you are not so convinced, and still think
that it is not a good religion, you are free to
reject it. I have no wish to force it upon you.
You are at liberty either to accept or reject it.
But after being fully convinced of the truth of
the Christian religion, if you still resist that
conviction and refuse to follow its leading
through fear of unpleasant consequences, then
I should call that an act of cowardice.

You know the saying of our venerable sage,
" If a man will not obey the mandate of his
conscience and reason, it should be counted to
him as an act of cowardice."

It is my duty, friends, this evening to pre-
sent the great truths of Christianity in such a
way that you may grasp them in one hearing,
and make an intelligent decision as to whether
or not you will accept them.

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 27

THE WHOLE TRUTH IN ONE SERMON

Now to accomplish such a purpose I must
necessarily proceed a little differently from our
usual method of preaching. Generally we
preach one truth or one part of this great re-
ligion at a time. One Sunday I might be
preaching about the love of God. Another
Sunday about the righteousness of God, and
so on. So that if you should come to our serv-
ice but one Sunday you could learn but one
truth or one side of the Christian religion. If
you come continuously, after hearing many
sermons you might be able to learn the whole
truth. But tonight I am going to give you the
whole truth at one time. I will try to pack
the truths of Christianity into one sermon, so
that you may grasp the whole at one hearing
and make your final decision for it at this time.

If you were going to tell the people what the
form of a human body is you would not speak
about the feet or hands only. Because though
they are very important members of the human
body yet they do not constitute the whole body.
You might explain the construction of these
members as fully and as minutely as possible,
yet you could never in this way alone make
people understand what the shape of the
human body is. In order to make people un-

28 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

derstand this you must show them the whole
body from head to foot at one view. You
must show them that the human head is a
round thing, resting on the neck and trunk;
that the arms and hands hang on the sides of
the trunk; while the legs and feet support the
whole. Then they can get some idea of the
general shape and appearance of the human
body.

In the same way I will show you tonight
the whole of Christianity, from head to foot,
in one long look.

DO NOT COME A SECOND TIME

Before I proceed, however, I must ask one
favor from you all, a favor I ask in every
place where I speak on this subject. That is,
please do not leave the place in the middle of
my sermon. As you have come to hear me
preach, please stay to the very end. If you
leave before the close not only will you fail to
understand my sermon, but I am afraid you
will misunderstand it. I have been several
times misunderstood by those who have heard
only a part of my sermon, especially as the last
section in which I deal with what may be called
the soul or life of the Christian religion is the
most important part. If you miss that last
section you can never get the living form of

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 29

Christianity, for without it Christianity is a
dead religion.

But if you stay to the end and hear my
whole sermon I believe you can get a fair
knowledge of the outHne of the Christian re-
ligion. Of course in a one-night talk I can not
go into details and speak of the deep things of
Christianity ; but I hope I can give you at least
such a bird's-eye view of Christianity as you
would get of a city from an airplane flying
above it.

One thing more, I preach here tomorrow
night also. But I am going to preach the same
sermon again, exactly the same sermon as to-
night. Therefore, those who hear me tonight
need not come again tomorrow evening. One
hearing is enough. And there are many in this
city who could not come tonight and who have
not yet heard Christian preaching. Perhaps
there are many such in your own homes or
among your friends. Won't you send them or
bring them here tomorrow evening and let
them also hear the gospel of Christ? I desire
that all our people should have an opportunity
to hear the way of salvation. Of course if
there are any among you who wish to hear
the same sermon again, then come tomorrow
evening also. I will not object to your com-
ing again, and perhaps you can understand it
better by hearing it twice.

PART I

CONCERNING GOD

THE BIBLE THE ONLY BOOK

MY friends, this is the Bible. This is
the only book of the Christian re-
ligion. There is none beside this one
book that can be called the book of Chris-
tianity.

There are innumerable books written con-
cerning Christianity but if you ask what is the
book of Christianity, I answer that this Bible
is the only book and there is none beside. This
Bible consists of two parts, the Old and the
New Testament. The Old Testament was
written before Christ, and the New Testament
after Christ. The whole Bible contains sixty-
six different books, of which thirty-nine are in
the Old Testament and twenty-seven are in the
New Testament.

For those who read the Bible the first time
I think it is easier and better to begin with the
New Testament, especially with the four
gospel stories of Christ. This Bible is not a
difficult book to read like the books of Con-
fucius and Mencius. It is written in a plain
and easy style. Moreover it has Kana [the
Japanese Syllabary] beside the Chinese char-

34 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

acters, so that any one who knows Kana can
read every page of the entire book. And the
Bible is not a very costly book. You can get
the whole Bible for less than half a dollar, and
a copy of the New Testament for five cents.
Therefore any one who has fifty cents can buy
the entire book of the Christian religion, and
if he knows forty-eight Kana he can read the
jl whole Bible through. I think there is no other
I religion in the world which is so easy to study
;' as Christianity. So I hope you will all get
that Bible and read it carefully, then you can
understand for yourselves what Christianity is.
However, to read the Bible through is not
an easy task. My Bible has twelve hundred
and twenty pages. To read through a book of
over a thousand pages is rather hard work.
Moreover, in one sermon I couldn't explain the
Bible from beginning to end. But it is not
necessary to do that in order to understand the
Christian religion.

There is another and much shorter way. I
have read this Bible through, studying it care-
fully, and I have found that there are three
great points around which all its teachings
cluster.

These are: first, God; secondly, Sin; and,
thirdly. Salvation. These three are its funda-
mental truths. All other teachings hang on

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 35

these three. And now therefore as soon as
you fully understand these three points you
jean easily understand all the other teachings,
j ;So I think it is absolutely necessary for those
who wish to understand the Christian religion
to get a clear conception of these fundamental
truths. Now I will explain each of these in
order.

A LAND OF MILLION GODS

The first is God. So I must tell you first of
all about God. But when I say I must speak
about God, there are many people among you
who say at once : " Oh, we know gods. No
Japanese can be ignorant of gods, seeing our
country is in the land of the gods. — We have
eight million gods in our country. We have
god-shelves in our homes. We have tutelary
gods in our towns and villages. What need
is there of hearing any more about gods, when
every one knows them and worships them?
If it is a talk about gods that we are listening
to we need not come to a Christian service to
hear it. We have imported many good things
from the western countries, such as railroads,
steamships, the telegraph, and so on, because
we did not have them before in our country.
But what use is there of importing more gods
from the western world when we have so many

36 THE THREE PIOUR SERMON

gods here already, perhaps more than we
need?"

That is the objection raised by many of our
people to the teaching of God.

It is true that all Japanese believe in gods
from childhood. I am a Japanese. I am not a
foreigner. In my father's house we had a god-
shelf. In my own town we had the shrine of
the tutelary god. I know very well that our
land is a land of eight million gods. From my
childhood I was a most devoted worshipper of
the gods. My own guardian god was the god
of writing [Ten Zin]. Our family crest is the
plum blossom, which, as you know, is the crest
of the god Ten Zin. We used to say that our
family is related in some way to that god of
writing. In devotion to the gods of our an-
cestors I was not a whit behind any other
Japanese.

But you see the gods that we Japanese used
to worship are entirely different from the God
whom Christians worship, and I will try to
show you the difference between the Japanese
gods and the Christian's God.

THE christian's CONCEPTION OF GOD

I will begin with the God of Christianity.
Christianity teaches that there is onlyone
true God in the universe. One and not many.

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 37

If you ask who is this one true God, Chris-
tianity will answer thus: The one true God
whom we Christians worship is the God who
made heaven and earth, and all things therein.
God is the Creator of the Universe.

When I say heaven in this connection I
mean the heavenly bodies — the sun, moon and
stars. All these heavenly bodies were created
by God. Earth here means of course the
globe whereon we live ; and by " all things,"
I mean all animals and birds, grasses and trees,
and everything else that we find upon the face
of the earth, having Man at the head of
creation.

Thus Christianity teaches that all things in
heaven and on earth were created by God in
the beginning, and there is nothing in the
whole universe that was not created by Him.

You know this building did not come of it-
self. It was built, but by whom? Of course
by carpenters. Thus in the same way this uni-
verse did not come of itself. It was created by
God — in the beginning. And the Creator of
this universe must be One. There cannot be
two creators in this one universe. This is the
Christian conception, of God.

38 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

THE JAPANESE CONCEPTION OF GOD

If you compare these two conceptions you
can easily understand the difference between
the gods whom we worship in Japan and the
God whom Christians worship, according to
the teachings of the Bible.

But, remember this, that when I tell you
stories of the gods of Japan I am giving you

; my own personal experiences. Because I my-
self believed in these gods from my childhood.

, So you see I am not simply quoting from some-
body else. On the contrary, mine are all first-
hand personal experiences.

THERE IS NO GOD WITHOUT A NAME

In Japan people say there are many gods,
even eight million of them. This is a funda-
mental difference — belief in many gods and
belief in one God. Moreover, Japanese gods
have names. There is no nameless god in this
country, just as there is no nameless man in
this town.

If you go to any town and simply inquire
for a man nobody can answer you. There is
no such thing as a man without a name in the

Itown. You must ask for such and such a
man by name. Just so, if you simply say god
in this country nobody can understand what

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 39

god you are speaking of. You must give the
name of the particular god you are asking for.

Hachiman — Ten Zin — Gongen — Konjin —
and so on.

We have a mountain god, a wind god, a
water god, a fire god, an earth god, and so on.
We were taught in this country that the dif-
ferent parts of the world are governed by dif-
ferent sets of gods, just as the different prov-
inces of the country are governed by dif-
ferent governors. Not only that, but towns
and villages have their own tutelary gods to
guard and protect them.

The tutelary god of my own town was the
fire god. Once a year we used to have a great
festival in his honour. On that day the people
made a great pile of firewood in front of the
big shrine and burned it all through the night.
Toward dawn, when all the wood was burned,
leaving a big bed of red coals, the priests who
had been dancing all night in the temple, with
drawn swords in one hand and tinkling bells
in the other, came down from the temple and;
ran barefooted over the coals but were not
burned. This was regarded as a miracle.
Great crowds from far and near came to see
this miraculous deed. After the priests had
several times run over the fire, the people them-
selves began to run through the fire, trampling

tTL

40 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

upon it, believing that thus they would gain
some benefit for themselves. The ashes were
later carried away, for the people believed
those ashes had great healing power for many
kinds of diseases.

THE THUNDER GOD

When I was a child we believed that thunder
was a terrible god. Whenever we heard the
thunder rolling we thought the thunder god
was angry and kicking around in heaven, thus
making a tremendous noise. And we were
told that the lightning was the fire in his eyes
when he gazed at a wicked man. At such
times we used to crawl under the mosquito
nets and try to hide ourselves, for we were
I told that even the thunder god could not reach
us through the net. And if he should fall
down on the net it is so soft and light he
would be tangled in it and could do no harm
to the person inside.

Oftentimes a man walking in the field was
struck down by the lightning and killed. Then
the people said, " That man must have been a
very bad man, because the thunder god has
fallen from heaven upon him and punished
him for his wickedness." But, we boys at
such times said, " Why, if the thunder god
has come down from heaven to punish that one

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 41

man, how can he get back to heaven again,
seeing there is no ladder on earth which
reaches to heaven?" But we were told:
" There is no need of such a ladder for the
\ thunder god because he can go back to heaven
J by climbing any tall tree. Go and see that pine
tree yonder then you can understand how the
thunder god has gone back to heaven." On
going we found the tree had been split from
top to bottom, and this was said to be done
by the thunder god climbing that tree in order
to get back to heaven.

Yes, the thunder god was regarded as one
of the most dreadful gods of the country. We
used to see pictures of the thunder god. He
looked something like a black devil beating
drums with all his might. And we were very
much afraid of him.

Now we are using thai fire in the thunder
- god's eyes for lighting our houses. You
' know the electric light is the same thing as
j the lightning. In olden times we had no
' electric light and no gas, not even lamps.
Some children might think that we have always
had lamps. But no, there was no lamp in our
country in the olden time. Lamps were im-
ported from the West. You know the word
lamp is not a Japanese word, it is an English
word.

42 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

What do you think we had in those old days
for lighting our houses? We had a light called
Andon. We used to put rape seed oil into a
plate with two or three wicks floating in it,
light their ends and thus get a dim light in
our houses. This is an Andon. It was a
very poor light indeed. We even had to read
by such a poor light. It was all right while
we were reading Chinese books only because
they were written in large characters. But
when we began to read English books by such
a poor light it at once spoilt our eyes and the
result is, as you see, we are obliged to wear
glasses.

THE WORSHIP OF THE HEAVENLY BODIES

If you look back fifty years you find our
country was just as dark as a house lighted
by these Andons.

There was no school in our country which
could be called a school in the modern sense.
The only school for the common people was a
place to learn to write [Tenarai]. There
were also schools for learning to read Chinese
books, but these were for the higher classes
alone. No commoner was allowed to attend.

Ignorance and darkness reigned all over the
country. Therefore the people were exceed-
ingly superstitious and childish. You know

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 43

superstition and ignorance go hand in hand.
Every morning we worshipped the rising sun
with clapping of hands and a prayer, calHng on
the sun as O Hi Sama — Honoured Fire, or
O Tento Sama. When the moon flooded the
earth with her silvery light, we worshipped her
also as the most beautiful goddess of heaven.
Children loved the moon and worshipped her.
Some stars were also worshipped as gods.
There is a large star on each side of the Milky
Way to which we used to pray. One was rep-
resented by a woman sitting at a loom, and the
other by a man taking care of a cow. The
woman star was called Tanabata San — the
weaver, and the man star was called Ushikai
San — cowherd. They were man and wife.
The Milky Way which separates them was
called Amano Kawa (Heavenly Stream).
Now these two star gods meet only once a
year, on a certain summer day, and if on that
day unfortunately it rains and the heavenly
stream is swollen so they can not meet, they
must wait until the next summer. As it is
a great pity for these star gods not to meet
even once a year, it is the duty of men living
on earth to help them out by celebrating their
festival and so preventing the flooding of the
heatenly stream. So we used to have a great
festival on that day. Then we were taught

M THE THREE HOUR SERMON

to worship all these heavenly bodies as
gods.

You who go to school now all study astron-
omy, and those who have studied astronomy
know what these heavenly bodies are. You
need not be told that they are not gods.
Everybody knows that nowadays. But when I
was a child we knew nothing of astronomy;
we were not taught that science in our old
Chinese schools; we were taught only the
Chinese classics and histories, that is all. No
astronomy, no physics, no chemistry, no, not
a bit of modern science. So we were perfectly
ignorant about the phenomena of the natural
world. If you look at the full moon you see
shady spots on its surface. When we children
asked our old folks, " What are those shady
spots on the face of the beautiful moon?",
they said, " Oh, that is a rabbit living in the
moon." In old books you find a picture of
the moon in which a rabbit is represented
pounding a mortar with pestles.

All sorts of such funny things we were
taught about the heavenly bodies. We were
taught to worship not only these heavenly
bodies but also still baser objects.

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 45

THE FOX GOD AND OTHERS

We worshipped foxes and badgers, snakes
and centipedes. We worshipped the fox, call-
ing him Inari — Sama. Of course, Inari
means the god of rice, and learned people say-
that it is not a fox but a representation of the
god of the rice crop — so important to our
country. But common people could not under-
stand such a fine distinction, and they simply
worshipped the fox as god of rice. If we saw
a small fox we did not care much about him;
but when a big old fox appeared, people began
to say : " There comes the Fox God. We must
offer him Abura age [fried bean curd], and
Adzuki meshi [rice cooked with red beans], i
both of which foxes are very fond of. So
they would bring these offerings to the den of
the fox and leave them at the entrance. The
fox might come out during the night and have
a good time feasting on these offerings. I
know that one of my friends even built
a small hut near the fox's den and slept there
during the night to keep company with the
fox god.

In the same way people worshipped badgers,
snakes, centipedes, whenever big ones ap-
peared. These, you know, are mere beasts
and worms. But we were so ignorant and

46 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

superstitious tKat we stooped to jvorship even
these base creatures.

Whenever an unusually fine tree was found
in the forest people used to say that that tree
had a spirit in it, just as men have spirits in
them. Then they decorated the tree by put-
ting the sacred straw rope around it and wor-
shipped it as a god of big trees. There was
even an old story that the spirit of a certain
big willow tl'ee became a beautiful woman and
married a very honest and good man of the
town.

When any peculiarly formed rocks were
found in the mountains they were also bound
with the sacred rope and worshipped as gods.
, Anything and everything which looked a
little strange and uncommon was soon made
into a god. I was told that in some places
people even worshipped cows and horses.

PRESENT-DAY SUPERSTITION

Such superstition is not confined however to
old-time Japan. Even at this present time you
see like superstitions prevailing all over the
country, and perhaps even worse than the old
ones.

You all know what kind of a man Ishikawa
Goyemon was [the famous Japanese robber].
But now even he is worshipped by many people

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 47

as a god. I wonder what kind of a god such
a man can be.

At the grave of Nedzumi Kozo [a famous
pickpocket] it is said that incense is always
found burning. Who offers that incense?
Why, all the pickpockets of the city of Tokyo
burn incense there. He is the god of the pick-
pockets, while Ishikawa Goyemon is the god of
thieves. When I was travelling in the south-
ern part of the island of Kyushu one day I
found in a certain temple a great many flags
and banners flying. I asked the people of the
place what kind of a god was in this temple —
" I see such a lot of flags and banners fl3ang,
it certainly must be a very famous god." The
man told me, " It is the god of gamblers."
All these flags and banners were offered by the
gamblers from all parts of the country. And
he said, moreover, "If you have faith in this
god you will win in all games, whether in
gambling or stock speculation, or even in
wrestling and fighting."

And now, my friends, what do you think
about these gods? Do you think that there
are such gods as a god of thieves, a god of
pickpockets, a god of gamblers? It is fearful
even to think of such things. It would indeed
be intolerable if such gods really existed in
this world.

48 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

No, no, there can never be such gods in this
world.

How can foxes and badgers, snakes and
centipedes, trees and rocks be gods?

How can the sun, moon and stars be gods?

No intelHgent person at the present time be-
lieves in such things as these.

But alas ! in our country, even in this present
day, there are hundreds of thousands who still
believe in these false gods. Why? Because
they are ignorant and untaught, and can not
see the real nature of these so-called gods. It
is mere superstition. Some of our people are
yet very superstitious.

THE AMALGAMATION OF TEMPLES AND
SHRINES

Superstition has increased immensely the
number of gods. So much so that at the pres-
ent time our government is rather troubled as
to how to dispose of these innumerable false
gods.

Of course, the government cannot tell the
people in plain words that what they are now
worshipping are all false gods, and therefore
that they had better throw them away. No,
the government cannot issue such orders. In
place of that our government has given private
instructions to the people in regard to the

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 49

amalgamation of temples. According to these
instructions many towns and villages have
begun the amalgamation of their temples, and
are thus reducing their number to a very few/

In one place there were over seventy temples
and shrines. But now the people have reduced
the number to four.

Poor gods! Those formerly living in big
temples by themselves are now crowded into
small box-like shrines, placed in rows of ten
or twenty, just like the poor people's tenement
houses in the new temple grounds. I asked a
villager why they showed such unkindness to
these poor gods they had been worshipping for
so many years. " Oh," he said, " the cost of
living is so high nowadays it is too great a
burden for the poor villagers to support so
many temples. Though it may be inconvenient
and uncomfortable for these gods to live so
crowded together, yet for the sake of the
people we put them together in the new temple
ground."

Well, it may be quite convenient for the vil-
lagers, but how about these poor gods?

Do you think that they are satisfied with
such treatment by the villagers? Of course
the villagers have not received permission from
their gods to carry out such an amalgamation.
They have done it without any consultation or

50 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

conference with the gods themselves. If these
gods are really living gods do you think they
v^ill be contented with such treatment by the
villagers? You know our homes are our
castles. It is the duty of every man to defend
his castle. If any one should break into your
house and carry you away without your con-
sent and put you into a miserable hut, would
you submit to such insolence without resist-
ance? Oh, no, you would fight such an one
with all your might. Now as these gods did
not fight the insolent villagers we must con-
clude that they are not living gods. They
are the work of human hands, the result of
superstition.

THE GOD-MAKING BUSINESS

In the old days of our childhood we used to
boast of our country having so many gods.
Perhaps there may not be another country
on this whole earth which has eight million
gods of its own. Ours is really the land of
gods. But we boasted of this foolish thing
because in those days we did not yet know
anything of the other countries of the world.
Since we have come to know other countries
our boasting is in vain. Look at the other
nations. How numerous are their gods? In-
deed, the nations of Europe and America have

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 51

only one God to worship, because they are
Christian countries. Christians, as I told you
in the beginning, worship only one God. But
look at China, India and all these savage na-
tions of Africa. How numerous are their
gods? India has the greatest number of gods
of any nation in the world. The present popu-
lation of India is said to be three hundred and
fifteen millions. But if you ask an Indian how
many gods he has in his country he would tell
you three hundred and thirty million gods.
That is, more than one god to each man. If
a nation could boast of having many gods I
think India would be the proudest nation of
the whole world. Our eight million gods can
not compete with their three hundred million
gods. And why have they so many gods?
Hov7 could they get them? Because Indians
themselves make their own gods. If people
begin to make their own gods there will be no
end of god-making. If each of three hundred
million people tries to make his own god, you
can have at once three hundred million gods.

But I think this god-making business is not
confined to India. All over the world, in
heathen countries, people make their own gods.
They carve various figures out of wood, stone
and metal, and overlay them with gold and
silver, and kneel down before them and wor-

52 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

ship them. Yes, this god-making is a very
simple process indeed.

We have asked such idol-worshippers often :
" How can these stone or wooden images be
gods? Are they not of the same kind of wood
which you burn in your stoves, or of the same
kind of metal and stone with which you build
your houses? Are they not all the workman-
ship of carpenters or stone masons?" "Oh,
yes,*' they say, " they were originally. But
now they have the spirits of gods put into
them, so they are gods and we must worship
them."

" But how," we ask, " did these spirits of
gods get into these figures, or who put them
there?"

" The priests did," they say.

" All right, but who are these priests ? Are
they not like other men, weak human beings?
Are the gods inferior to men? Can spirits of
gods be put into anything of stone or wood by
the mere will of a human being? "

Nonsense! even to think of such a thing.
But all these idol gods are made in this way,
and are then worshipped by the very men who
made them. Everywhere people are practising
such nonsense in god-making. And the won-
der is that they really believe in their man-
made gods.

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 53

THE SAVAGE MAN AND HIS STICK-GOD

If you go to savage countries you will find
more amusing things than god-making. For
instance, when some men go out hunting and
find a stick on the road they pick it up, stand
it up by the roadside, kneel down and offer
prayers. They earnestly pray for good luck
in finding game. If they are fortunate enough
to get game that day, on their return they bow
down to their stick-god and offer him the best
portion of the meat as a thank-offering. But
if they do not get the game they prayed for
they become angry and lay the entire blame
upon the stick-god to whom they offered
prayers in the morning. When they see the
stick still standing there they rush at it and
kick it over and trample it, even binding it with
ropes and putting it in the river, saying they
have punished their gods for not answering
their prayers.

What an amazing thing it is ! Man punish-
ing his god for not answering his prayer !

But if you think it over you can see the
reason at once. This stick-god is made by the
man himself, it is his creature. To give him
good luck he has created this god and so he
has the power to punish the god. God here
is the creature instead of the creator. Such

54i THE THREE HOUR SERMON

a god is like the hunter's dog; if he obeys his
master and does his work well he will be
praised and rewarded. But if he does not
do it, of course he will be punished and
beaten.

We were laughing at the foolishness of these
savage people, and saying how ridiculous it is
for a man to pray to his own stick. But on
reflection I say : " No." We can not laugh at
these people because we ourselves have done
the same thing. I do not know whether you
have ever done such things or not, but I have
quite often. I mean when I was young. Sup-
pose I was travelling in an unfamiliar place
and came to a crossroad and was puzzled
which way to take, I would first try to find out
by asking some one who knew the road. But
finding no one, I would look for a guide-post.
If there was no such post, what did I do? I
used to take a cane if I happened to have one,
or find a stick on the road, and stand it up
at the crossing; then shutting my eyes I let
the stick fall, and if I found it on the right
I said the gods called me to take the turn to
the right and I followed it. If I had neither
cane nor stick, I held out my left hand and
spit upon it, and struck it with two fingers of
the right hand, believing the gods called me to
go in the direction in which the spittle flew.

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 66

Thus you see I made a stick- or even a spittle-
god.

Now, my friends, where is the difference
between the stick-god of the savage man and
my spittle-god ? No difference, not a bit.

Everywhere ignorance breeds superstition.
If you read our old books you will find many
stories of man's beating and punishing his
gods for not answering his prayers. Human
nature works in the same manner everywhere.
All over the world uncivilized peoples make
their own gods. And these gods are nothing
but the reflections of their hearts. So origi-
nated all sorts of gods, good, bad, high, low,
strong, weak, merciful, cruel, and so on. As
there are thieves, pickpockets and gamblers in
this world so came the gods of thieves, pick-
pockets and gamblers. And as there are many
bad women in the world, so came the god of
licentiousness.

DARKNESS AND IGNORANCE

This pitiable state of mind of uncivilized
peoples is like the darkness of the night. You
know, many people believe ghosts appear in the
night-time but never in daylight. During the
night they imagine that all sorts of dreadful
creatures roam about.

Children are especially afraid to go out in

56 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

the dark, fearing they may encounter those
dreadful creatures of the night. Perhaps yon-
der in a dark corner Black Bozu [apparitions
having their heads shaven Hke Buddhist
priests] might be glaring at them. Or, under
that big v^illow tree, white ghosts might be
standing, pale-faced, long-haired, v^ith their
hands in front of them. And the childish
mind imagines these frightful creatures make
their appearance only during the night; when
the dawn approaches they all retreat to their
hiding-places, and thei world is once more
cleared and safe.

Not only they, but even the stars of the
night which twinkle so merrily in the heavens,
will all vanish away before the brightness of
the morning sun.

Just so, while the country is uncivilized and
ignorance reigns among the people, they be-
lieve in all sorts of false gods which swarm in
the imaginations of all ignorant people. But
when once the sun of enlightenment rises on
the horizon of the childish mind, all these ap-
paritions will disappear, and people will begin
to worship only the one true God of the uni-
verse.

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 57

ONE SUN — ONE GOD

You know that well-known saying, " There
is only one sun in heaven and not two suns,
and there is but one Lord in the land and not
two Lords."

Truly, there is but one sun in heaven that ^^
shines upon this earth and not two. No man
would say there is a Japanese sun and an
American sun — the Japanese sun shines only
upon Japan and the American sun shines only
upon America. Is there one among us so fool-
ish as to say or to think that, although our sun
is round, there may be other countries where
suns are triangular ?

No, no, the sun which shines upon the whole
earth is one and the same sun.

Now seeing that even the material sun which
lights the whole world is one and not many,
can you still say that our spiritual sun, the God
of the whole world, is many rather than one?

There are many people in Japan even now
who say that the different countries of the
world were created by different sets of gods,
and are ruled and protected by their respective
gods. They say Japan was created by the gods
of the Japanese, and is ruled over and pro-
tected by them alone. So we Japanese need
not worship any other gods but our own. It

58 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

is right for people of other countries to believe
in their own gods, but for us Japanese to be-
lieve in the other gods of the world and for-
sake our own gods, the gods of our ancestors
— would be unprofitable to our country and
unfilial to our ancestors.

This is a very common saying among many
Japanese who do not understand what Chris-
tianity is. They still believe that the different
countries of the world were created by and
are ruled over and protected by different sets
of gods. And in the opinion of many it is the
duty of the people of each country to reverence
their own gods and not those of any other
country.

It is quite natural for ignorant people to
think so. But do you think that in the light
of the present-day civilization such an un-
reasonable belief can be maintained ?

ALL MEN ARE SIMILAR

Look, for example, at the form of the
human body. Can you imagine that the dif-
ferent races of the world were created by dif-
ferent sets of gods? Do you think that the
different sets of gods would have made the
people of this world so nearly alike in form as
they are?

The world population is now approximately

,GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 59

seventeen hundred millions. Take, then, the
seventeen hundred million human beings and
examine the construction of their bodily
organs. Do you think you can find any differ-
ence among them ? No, not in the least. The
construction of the human body is exactly the
same all over the world. Of course there is a
difference in colour among the different races of
people; some are white, some are black, some
are yellow and some are red; but this differ-
ence in the colour of the skin is of minor im-
portance and is often due to climatic conditions.
Moreover, we find a difference of colour not
only among the different races, but even among
people of the same race. Tonight, I believe,
we have here a representative gathering of the
people of this city. And yet as I look at the
audience from the platform I see a marked
difference in colour among you. I see many
beautifully white faces among you as white
as the white races of the world. But I must
say, though I am sorry to say it, that among
you I see also faces as dark as the brown races
of the world.

Now if among our own people we find such
a difference in colour it is quite natural that we
should find a great difference in colour among
|;he different races of the world.

But what I am here contending for cis to the

60 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

sameness of the human body is not its colour
but its construction. For example, in travel-
ling all over the world can you find any three-
eyed or three-legged people among the races
of the world? Can you find any human race
which has six fingers or six toes ? In one place
where I asked this question one of my audi-
ence cried out, " Oh, yes, there are six-fingered
persons in the world." Then I said, " My
friend, where did you find such a person?
Please tell me the place."

He answered, " Oh, yes, deformed persons
have sometimes six fingers."

Sure, but they are deformed, not ordinary
men. Among ordinary men you do not find
six-fingered persons. Everywhere in this
world man has only two eyes, two hands, two
legs and ten fingers. Not only are these
external organs the same in every man but
all of the internal organs are the same. The
lungs spread out on both sides of the chest
. like two branches of a tree, and the heart
hangs on the left side. Nobody has his heart
i hanging on the backbone. Stomach and
' bowels, kidneys and liver, are in exactly the
same position. So all human beings are of the
same form, just as all the rice crackers cut out
by the same cutter are the same, although there
may be a difference in colour, according to the

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 61

degree of baking. Some are baked too much
and become black as Africans. Some are not
quite done and are pale as the white races.
While some are baked just enough and are
coloured like the yellow people. But all these
differences are only in colour, not in form of
construction.

And now, if there are many gods in this
world, as some people say, each trying to make
their own people, do you think that they would
make them so nearly alike? We can not sup-
pose that the gods of the whole world con-
vened a congress of gods in the beginning for
the man-making business, and decided upon
the form of man by majority of votes. No,
they would not do such a thing in consultation.
And if really these different sets of gods each
made their own people independently, surely
there would be a great difference in the form
of men. Suppose you give a similar piece of
cloth to each of ten women and let them each
make a dress, entirely independent of each
other, do you think they would make the same
kind of a dress? No, impossible.

GOD IS OUR FATHER

Now what does this prove ? Why, it proves
decisively that the god who made the people of
this world must be one and not many. There

62 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

can not be more than one creator of the world.
And this one true God who made the seven-
teen hundred million people of this world is
the true and real Father of all mankind. We
are all His children. We all have our earthly-
parents and we love and honour them. But
they have simply given birth to us and not
made us. There is a great difference between
giving birth to a child and making a child.
Man can not give the spirit of life to a child.
Only God can give the spirit to man. So He
is the true spiritual Father of us all.

H any man disobeys his parents and treats
them unkindly, he will be condemned by his
fellowmen as unfilial and undutiful. You
know ingratitude toward one's parents is re-
garded in our country as a most heinous sin.
Our obligation toward our parents is said to
be the highest obligation on this earth, and is
higher than the highest mountain and deeper
than the deepest sea. And now if you say that
our obligation toward our earthly parents is
higher than the highest mountain of the earth,
ought we not to say that our obligation toward
our Heavenly Father is higher than the very
heavens? Yes, certainly, our ingratitude to-
ward our Heavenly Father is the greatest sin
iof all.

We are indeed the children of God. Here

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 63

lies the dignity of man as the head of crea-
tion.

The true worth of a man does not consist in
his earthly possessions nor in his human rank.
Of course these have their place. But having
or not having them does not make a bit of
difference in regard to our true dignity as the
head of creation and our worth as human
beings. Our true dignity and honour lie in th'e"
fact that we are created in the image of God,
thus being the children of the King of the
Universe.

Now to believe in this one true God, and to
obey and love Him as our Father, and to try
to become children worthy of Him, created in
His own image, is the gist of the whole teach-
ing of Christianity.

If God is our Father then we are all
brothers and sisters of each other, no matter
to what race or country or people we belong.
And if we are really brothers and sisters, why
should we not love one another and live in
perfect peace.

Now, my friends, these two great truths —
the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of
Man — are the two foundation stones on which
the Christian religion is built. Jesus said,
when He was asked, " Which is the greatest
commandment of the law?" "Thou shalt

64* THE THREE HOUR SERMON

love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and
with all thy soul, and with all thy mind and
with all thy strength. This is the great and
first commandment ; and the second is like unto
it; thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."
Do you not see now that, if the entire world
would believe in the Christian religion and
obey our Lord's commandments, as given to us
by Jesus Christ, its condition would be en-
tirely changed and peace and happiness and
righteousness and justice would reign all over
the world?

*'\f£^C^

PART II
CONCERNING SIN

WHAT IS SIN?

NOW we come to the second great point
of my sermon. The first was on God.
The second is on sin, which is enmity
to God.

Christianity teaches that we all are sinners,
men, women and children. No human being
is sinless in this world. " There is none good,
no not one." When we preach such a doctrine
to our people some object to it at once, saying:
"Am I a sinner? What have I done? On
what evidence do you call me a sinner or a
criminal? I have done nothing of the kind in
my life. Why do you call me by such an
awful name as a sinner or a criminal? It's
outrageous. These preachers are always say-
ing sin, sin, sin, just as if they were prison
officials talking to the convicts. This talking
about sin is one thing I always disliked in
Christian preaching and I do hate to hear it.
They look down upon us from that high pulpit
as if we were criminals brought before the
judge. Therefore, I don't like to attend Chris-

67

08 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

I have oftentimes offended many persons in
this way, by telling them they are sinners, be-
cause they misunderstood the meaning of sin.
They thought I was charging them with some
awful crime, and naturally would be offended.
Even tonight if I should say from this plat-
form that you are all criminals, thieves, mur-
derers, and so on, would you not be offended
at my words? Yes, indeed, you would be of-
fended, and some of you might jump up here
and knock me down for saying such dreadful
things. And I should deserve it if I insulted
you with such charges. But, please do not
misunderstand me when I say you are all sin-
ners. I do not think there are any thieves or
murderers present in this audience. But what
is theft and murder? Are they not offences
against the law of this country? Of course
there are no such lawbreakers in this congre-
gation. The lawbreakers do not wear such
clothing as you and I do ; they wear a prison
uniform, as you know, and as I do not see any
such uniforms here I am sure there is not a
single criminal in this audience tonight.

But what I am speaking of here is not such
crimes or offences against our state laws. Of
course those crimes are included in the general
designation of sin. But they form a very
small part of it.

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 69

Sin in its broad and true sense is an offence
against the law of God. As every well-gov-
erned country has laws of its own, so this uni-
verse has laws of its own. And what Chris-
tianity teaches as sin is the breaking of the law
of the universe. An offence against the law of
a country is different from an offence against
the law of God. Because God's laws and state
laws are entirely different. May I tell you the
difference between these two kinds of laws?

EGG AND CHICKEN

Take for example the case of murder.
What is written in the laws of the state?

" Whoever kills a man is a murderer."

But the law of God says, " Whoever hates
his brother is a murderer."

Do you not see the great difference between
these two laws ?

One refers to the actual killing of a man,
the other takes the simple hating as murder.
A great difference indeed ! But, do you know
why hating men is counted as murder in the
law of God? I will tell you the reason. Why
do men kill their fellowmen? Do they kill
them simply for fun? No, indeed. They
kill because they hate. Hating comes before
killing. Do you see that hating is the cause of
killing? If you hate a man intensely and your

70 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

feeling oversteps a certain point, then the
kilHng comes as the result. Thus, you see,
hatred is the cause and murder is the effect.
In order to make the point clearer I will give
an illustration.

Hatred might be compared to an egg^ while
murder is the chicken coming out of that Qgg.
Chickens come out of eggs. But can you see
the chicken in the Qgg? Do you see any jump-
ing bird within the round shell of an Qgg? No,
nothing. H you break an Qgg you can only
find the yolk and white — that is all, nothing
more. But if you give that egg to a hen and
let her sit over it a certain length of time a
little chick will come out of it.

When you want chickens to come out of
eggs you do not put the chick into the egg be-
forehand, as jugglers do when they bring
pigeons out from an empty box. To bring out
chicks from eggs you do not need such tricks.
Who ever put a chicken into an egg in order to
bring it out? No one would think of making
such a foolish attempt. Just lay the egg under
a hen long enough and the chick will come out
beautifully and naturally.

Now, as the result of this reasoning we
come to the conclusion that from the first there
must have been a chicken in the egg. Other-
wise it could not have come out although you

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 71

may have kept the egg warm ever so long. It
is an unchangeable law of nature — something
can not come out of nothing. Certainly there
was a chicken in the egg from the beginning,
though we could not see it with our bodily
eyes. The egg contains within itself all the
elements required to form the chicken.

I said that hating is an egg from which the
bird of murder will hatch out. Try it now by
setting this egg of hatred — not under a hen but
in your own heart, and see whether the bird of
murder will hatch out or not. I do not see any
birds of murder flying among us tonight; but
are there not eggs of murder among us ? Have
you not these eggs in your hearts, which, if
hatched, will surely bring forth murder ?

Well then, I will ask you another question.
Have you never hated any one in your life-
time? Have you never had any feeling of
jealousy or envy ? Have you never been angry
with other people since you were born into
this world? I am afraid there may be some
here who have been guilty of such sins this
very day. I am afraid there may be some
young people here who have been fighting or
knocking down other fellows — since this very
morning.

Perhaps some women have said, " Oh, yes,
men might have such dreadful things as

72 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

the eggs of murder in their hearts, but we
women do not shelter such things in our
hearts."

But, ladies, I am sorry to say you also have
such eggs and germs of sin in your hearts. I
am afraid that there may be more of these
germs and eggs of evil in women's hearts than
in men's hearts.

Do you not know it is always women who
do Mshinotokimairi? That is, who go at mid-
night with burning candles upon their heads to
the shrine of certain gods, praying to them to
kill those people whom they hate? Is it not
our old mothers-in-law who treat young brides
so unkindly, even cruelly ? Is it not a fact that
we find unkind natures more often among
women than among men? I am afraid these
eggs are more plentiful in women's hearts than
in men's.

But not women alone, men and women all
have these eggs and germs of evil, keep them
warm a little while, and the evil birds will fly
out suddenly from their hearts.

I confess I also have these eggs. But mine
have been kept in my heart only as eggs, with-
out being hatched, because I have not yet had
occasion to keep them warm. I have not yet
had such hard experiences in my own life as to
hatch these eggs. If I had had such experi-

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 73

ences perhaps from my own heart the birds of
hate would have flown out before this. I say
therefore that nothing on earth is so danger-
ous as the secret evil thoughts of the human
heart.

INSUFFICIENCY OF THE STATE LAW

In the human heart we find not only eggs
of murder but hundreds of other kinds of eggs
— eggs of stealing, eggs of adultery, etc. Why
do men steal ? Do they steal for fun ? They
steal because they covet other people's prop-
erty. If they did not covet they would not
steal. Therefore, coveting is an Ggg of steal-
ing. Don't you see it ? You see how plenteous
are the eggs of stealing among us.

The state law says, " One who violates a
woman should be condemned as guilty of adul-
tery." But God's law says, " One who har-
bours an impure thought toward a woman
should be condemned as guilty of adultery."
The law looks at the outward conduct — the
bird, while God looks at the inner thought — ■
the egg.

Policemen are bird-catchers. What do you
think policemen are doing day and night? Are
they not trying to catch these birds of evil?
When a thief or a murderer is at large the
people call for the police to go after him and

74 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

catch him. But it is not an easy thing to
catch a bird. They have wings, you know. I
can not catch even a sparrow. If I run after
him he will fly away. It must be very hard
too for the police to catch these other birds.
Murderers and robbers are not easy to catch.
Sometimes a policeman has to fight with them
at the risk of his life. But how is it that al-
though our policemen work hard and faith-
fully to catch these birds, the number of thieves
and other criminals is not decreasing, but
rather increasing?

You know our poem about the impossibility
of exterminating the criminals of the country
— "Though the sands of the seashore might
some day be exhausted, yet the seeds of thieves
and robbers will never be exhausted." Why is
this ? Because though the police might kill the
birds they can never smash the eggs ; and while
they are trying to kill one bird hundreds of
eggs are being laid and birds are constantly
being hatched, which the police can not pre-
vent.

If I should take somebody's watch the police
will at once arrest me as a thief, because the
bird has been hatched and flown out of its tgg.
But if instead of taking the watch I am simply
coveting that of another man, and so laying
eggs of stealing, as long as these criminal de-

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 75

sires lie in my heart simply as eggs no police-
man can lay his hands upon me.

If I should kill a man of course I would be
arrested at once as a murderer. But as long
as I am simply harbouring hatred and evil
intentions toward another person, and not ac-
tually committing murder, though ten thou-
sand police might surround me they could do
nothing. No, the state laws can never smash
a single egg. They are perfectly powerless
against these eggs and germs of evil.

Now I say that although you might make
your state laws ever so strict and ever so per-
fect yet you can never clear the country of
these criminals by state laws alone. Because
they can not smash the eggs. Then, by what
law can we smash these eggs? Only by the
law of God. State laws can catch the bird —
sometimes, but God's law alone can smash the
eggs.

Now, my friends, Christianity teaches this
law of God. It is the aim of the Christian
religion to smash all these evil eggs, for if
you smash the eggs then no more evil birds
can be hatched. If the birds are hatched out,
of course the state law must catch them; but
if eggs of evil are laid in the human heart
Christianity must crush them by the law of
God. So you see these two kinds of laws

76 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

must work together to clear the country of all
these sins and crimes.

Viewing sin from this standpoint I believe I
have convinced you that sin is universal in this
world. I do not think any one can say now,
" I am not a sinner,'* or " I have no such eggs
of sin in my heart," or " I am perfectly free
from all such imperfections."

But I say every man is a sinner because he
harbours these eggs or germs of evil in his
mind. I am speaking about sin with reserve.
If I were to go on and speak about sin more
freely I would say that we have not the eggs
only, but that we have the birds too. Our
country is full of these birds. Can't you see
them — the dreadful birds of adultery, theft,
murder, etc., flying all over the country? How
numerous they are !

THE SIN OF ADULTERY

Let me mention a few of the conspicuous
ones flying around us at the present time. I
will take first the sin of adultery. What about
this sin? Do men simply look at women with
evil and impure desires? Is that the extent
of the sin of adultery in this country? Look
at these impure women who are called prosti-
tutes, dancing girls and waitresses. Who are
they? What are they doing? I am ashamed

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 77

even to speak of them in such a respectable
audience as this; but I can not help it. I must
say they are women who are selling their
virtue. They are the very instruments of the
sin of adultery. They are the ones who are
defiling our whole community. They are
dragging down our young people into the
depths of impurity. They are the very ones
who are breaking the hearts of mothers and
wives and destroying the happiness and sacred-
ness of homes all over our country. No plague
is so pernicious and destructive as the plague
of prostitution, which is not only defiling our
young people but the whole community, old
and young, high and low, educated and unedu-
cated. What social gathering or what social
dinners are there in this country where these
women are not invited and made to sing and
dance and do all kinds of improper entertain-
ment? And you know because of the presence
of these impure women our respected and hon-
oured ladies can not take part in such social
gatherings. If men who are in high places do
such things how can the young people help
imitating them? Fathers set bad examples to
their sons by freely mingling with these bad
women.

Many men keep these women as concubines,
not only secretly, but sometimes openly and

78 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

brazenly in their own homes, under the same
roof with their wives and children. All the
sacredness of our homes and the purity of
sexual relations are being destroyed by the
presence of these evil women in the country.
I have heard that at the present time there are
several hundred thousand of these women in
our country of Japan and it is said the number
is increasing. I feel that it is high time for
the patriots of this land who have the welfare
of this nation at heart, to stand up and stem
this tide of iniquity. It is the duty of our
statesmen and politicians who care for the real
and true honour and prosperity of this nation
to bestir themselves and put an end to such
disgraceful and wicked institutions.

But I appeal especially to our women to
rouse themselves and start a crusade against
these wretched brothels. It lies in their hands
and in their power to stop these wicked prac-
tices, if they are sufficiently awakened to their
duty and their responsibility.

I know that our Y.W.C.A. and W.C.T.U.
and the Purity Society are all doing very good
work. We are very grateful for their excel-
lent service. But, if I may express my opinion
a little more freely, I am not yet satisfied with
them. I don't think they are yet determined
enough to accomplish their end. They are not

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 79

yet earnest enough to stake their lives upon the
accomplishment of this great work for the
purification of society.

Now, my friends, unless the social relations
of our countrymen and countrywomen are
thoroughly cleansed it is impossible to have a
clean nation. We all know that a nation is
founded upon its homes, and homes are
founded upon the relation of husbands and
wives. If this relation is defiled, as at the
present time, how can you expect to have clean
homes? If you have not clean homes, how can
you raise clean children? If you can not bring
up clean children how can you expect to have
a clean and wholesome people ? And without a
clean and virtuous people how can you have a
clean and great nation?

THE SIN OF STEALING

How about stealing? Do you call those only
thieves who break into houses in the stillness
of the night and carry off money or jewelry
or clothing? Yes, they are thieves, but they
are not the only thieves. They might be called
petty thieves. Big thieves do not act in such
an awkward manner. They do it in a very
fine style — often dressed in a swallow-tailed
coat and silk hat, with decorations on their

80 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

breasts — and they steal in the broad light of
day.

Do you not know that we have had such
cases of robbery in the House of Commons
as well as among the high government of-
ficials? Have we not had such cases also
among the officers of banks and corporations?
And are not some of them still confined in the
state prison? Worst of all, we have heard of
such cases of robbery even among the shaven-
headed priests of certain religious orders.

When I was travelling in the southern sec-
tion of the country I was astonished to hear
it reported that some three hundred students
of a government middle school had banded
themselves together and had stolen $1,750
worth of books from a bookstore in the town
where this school is situated. Think of it —
students of a middle school, whom we expect
to be the very backbone of our nation, have
turned out to be thieves. A dreadful thing in-
deed. But I mention only the cases reported
in the newspapers. If all cases of robbery
among our people were reported in these news-
papers I doubt if the papers would have space
enough to print them.

The country is full of thieves. In the state
prisons at the present time I hear there are
seventy thousand thieves in prison garb. But

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 81

outside of the prisons there are many hun-
dreds of thousands of a worse kind of thieves,
wearing ordinary clothes. Yes, the big birds
of this kind are flying all over the country.

THE SIN OF MURDER

What, then, about the sin of murder? Shall
we count as murderers only those who take
away a man's life by the sword or the gun?
Are there not other ways of killing besides
that? Yes, there are. There are a thousand
ways of committing murder.

I will tell you of one — a most heinous way
of murder, which is very little noticed by the
public. A profligate son may squander his
father's money, spending it on drinking and
bad women, and finally using up all his fam-
ily's property and destroying his own health
and honour, thus forfeiting the respect of so-
ciety, he finally sinks into the depths of misery
and dishonour. Now, how do you suppose his
parents feel about this? Why, the father's
hair turns grey early, and the mother has un-
timely wrinkles in her face. What do these
changes signify? Simply that these parents'
lives have been shortened by the wicked con-
duct of their unfilial son, perhaps shortened
by five or ten years. They may go down to
their graves so many years earlier than they

82 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

would have gone but for this ungrateful son.
God might have given them seventy years to
live on this earth, yet they have been cut off
at sixty-five. Is not the sending of his parents
so much earlier to their graves by his wicked
conduct as bad as putting an end to their lives
with his own hand ? Yes, indeed ! It is a case
of parricide. He has murdered his father and
mother at the age of sixty-five.

And I am sorry to say that there are many
cases of this kind of parricide in our country.
How many fathers and mothers are going
down to an early grave broken-hearted on ac-
count of the misconduct of their children?
Have you not such cases in your own town and
village? You know, all our children are
taught in school that being filial to their
parents is the first duty of man. So they must
all know that. But, alas ! All school teaching
enters the one ear and out the other. As soon
as school days are over most of its teaching is
forgotten. Our schools fail to produce a last-
ing effect with their ethical teaching.

PARTIALITY OF THE HEATHEN MORAL
TEACHINGS

I must say that while I am condemning the
misconduct of our children toward their
parents in such severe terms, at the same time

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 83

I must not forget the other side of the case
— the misconduct of the parents toward the
children. I must not blame the children only
and leave out the parents entirely. I must not
be partial.

I think on this point of the relations be-
tween parents and children our moral teach-
ings are very partial and one-sided, and there-
fore very defective. While they lay great
stress on the duty of children toward their
parents, they do not lay sufficient stress on the
duty of parents toward their children. They
condemn the least infraction of the obligation
of the children, but they overlook any failure
on the part of the parents.

If there are cases of parricide among our
children, there are also grievous cases of in-
fanticide among parents. Parents murdering
their children. Are there not cases of abor-
tion, and even of suffocation of newborn
babes? Are these not acts of murder? Yes,
they are. Mothers and fathers are doing these
things. Of course those who commit such
awful crimes are guilty of infanticide and are
liable to be punished by the law of the state.

There are other cases of child-murder
which, though not liable to punishment under
the state law, are yet very wicked. I refer to
the selling of girls by their parents to houses

84 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

of ill-fame. Of course it is not legal to sell
these girls, but many girls are sent to those
bad houses for the sake of the money their
parents will receive.

We have a familiar saying that girls who are
sold to these houses are thrown into a dirty^
ditch from which they can never come back
clean. They become outcasts of society. Most
of them contract venereal diseases and soon
die. Their lives are thus shortened by enter-
ing these awful places. Yes, such places are
hell for these poor girls. They are doomed for
life. And you see their own parents, fathers
and mothers, having thrown their girls into
this filthy ditch, drink and gamble with the
money received from the sale of their chil-
dren. Don't you think that these wicked men
and women really murder their unfortunate
daughters? Yes, they do.

Do you think that these parents have still a
fatherly and motherly feeling for their chil-
dren whom they treat thus ? Can you still call
them by the name of parents? I can not.
They have no right to such an honourable title
as that of parents. I would rather call them
devils, feasting upon the very flesh and blood
of these unfortunate human creatures.

I am ashamed to say that our public does
not take much notice of the wicked conduct of

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 85

these parents, and our government still allows
such heinous crimes. Not only that, but even
religious and moral teachers (I mean heathen
priests and so-called moral teachers) side with
these parents and teach that it is the filial duty
of these daughters to obey their parents' will
and fulfil their wishes.

MURDER AND INTEMPERANCE

I must mention one more kind of murder,
which is by drink. Intoxicating drinks do de-
stroy human lives. Are not drunkards break-
ing the hearts of their wives, their mothers
and their children? Yes, they are. They are
bringing their dearest ones to untimely
graves. Yes, they are murdering them. Not
only their nearest and dearest, but themselves.
How many drunkards are going down to early
graves? They are committing suicide. Then
how dreadful is the business of manufacturing
and selling this destroyer of life, and devastat-
ing the whole country with such poisons.

I always look upon drink as my deadly
enemy, because it killed my father. He died
quite young because of drink. Therefore in-
toxicating drink is my deadly enemy with
whom I can not bear to live under the same
heaven. I am determined to take revenge on
my father's murderer.

86 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

Perhaps even in this audience there may be
some one who can say with me — Drink was
my father's murderer — or my husband's mur-
derer. In one place when I said this a woman
cried out : " Oh, yes, drink is my son's mur-
derer. My son died of that awful poison."

I know one case of drink killing thirty-six
persons at one stroke. Perhaps you remember
the dreadful news reported through the news-
papers a few years ago. In one of the north-
ern railroad stations the assistant station
master killed thirty-six passengers because of
drink. He got drunk while he was on duty
and entirely forgot the coming of a special
train, so two trains collided, resulting in the
instant death of thirty-six passengers.

Drink not only destroys human life but also
destroys homes and property, and so devastates
the whole country. It is indeed the most
dreadful enemy of mankind. The world must
get rid of it. I hope our temperance societies
will bestir themselves now and do their utmost
toward destroying this enemy of mankind. I
know they are doing good work, but not
enough. Look at America. What a wonder-
ful thing those American temperance societies
have done. Think of it. A nation of one
hundred million people throwing away intoxi-
cating liquors entirely and becoming dry all

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 87

over the country! Its effect upon the health,
weahh and morals of the people is inestimable.

You know in our country more than one-
tenth of the whole rice crop is turned into in-
toxicating drinks. In these days of the
scarcity of rice, when people are complaining
of the lack of food, one-tenth of the principal
food of the people is taken away from them
for the purpose of brewing poisonous liquors.
What a shameful thing this is to our country.

Now you see there are not only eggs of sin
in the hearts of men, but big birds flying in
the air all over the country. The world at
present is full of sin. We find sins right and
left all over the world. Every man is full of
sin from head to foot. No, there is no sin-
less man on the whole earth, not even one.

THE FRONT GATE OF CHRISTIANITY

But here, some one may object, " Oh, see
here, that preacher, standing on that high plat-
form and looking down upon us, is upbraiding
us as miserable sinners, and is perhaps think-
ing of himself as a good man." ^

No, my friends, I am not upbraiding you
alone as being miserable sinners. I know I am
also a miserable sinner. Perhaps I am the
chief of sinners. Don't you know that we
Christians do not hold a mirror facing toward

88 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

others but toward ourselves? If you should
hold a mirror facing toward other people you
can see their faces reflected in the mirror and
then you are tempted to make comments upon
them, saying, " That man's face is a little too
long," and "This man's face is a little too
round," and so on. But if you hold up your
mirror with its face toward yourself alone
then you can see your own face reflected in the
mirror. I confess now that before I became a
Christian I thought I was a good man, per-
haps better than the most of my fellowmen. I
had not yet violated any of the laws of our
country. I had not done injustice to any man.
I had not defrauded any person. I had not
been disobedient to my parents. I had brought
up my children in decency and order. In fact
I had done nothing yet worthy of condemna-
tion. So I thought I was a good man.

But when I became a Christian and held
the mirror right before my face, and saw my
own figure reflected in it, from head to foot,
then I said, " Oh, what a wretched sinner I
am ! " I have seen sins of all kinds reflected
from my own life in that mirror, eggs and
birds, of which I was not at all conscious be-
fore. Yes, I found myself to be the greatest
of all sinners.

Now, my friends, tonight I am not blaming

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 89

you for anything. I am not upbraiding you at
all. I can not do that. Because I do not know
you personally. I do not know your past his-
tory nor your present condition. I only see
your faces now for the first time. How can
I reprove you? No, no, I do not try to do
anything of that kind tonight. But this one
thing I beg you to do— to take up this mirror
of God and turn it toward your own face and
see what kind of men you are. Do you think
that you will find the figures of saints, or
angels of heaven reflected in that mirror?

No, my friends, I am afraid you will find
instead the figures of black devils — the great-
est of sinners. Then you will surely cry out,
" Oh, wretched man that I am ! Who shall de-
liver me from the body of this death."

I tell you this finding out of your own sins,
and crying out for the way of salvation from
them, is indeed the front gate to the religion
of Christ. If you are at all truly desirous of
entering into this religion of Christ you must
come to the front gate. You must not climb
over the fence or break through the hedge to
enter into this religion. There are many
among our own countr3/men who are trying to
enter the Christian religion through these
fences and hedges, saying, " Oh, yes, Chris-
tianity is good for the country, for the people,

90 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

for the family, for the home, for the wives
and the children, so I will accept this religion
as my own.*'

Very well, it is all true that Christianity is
good for the country and the people; but you
can never enter into that religion by such a
roundabout way of belief. Yes, your country,
your family, your wives and your children may
enter into the Christian religion if you en-
courage them to do so, because it is good for
them to do it ; but you yourself can never enter
into that religion by such a superficial belief.
If you really wish to enter into the Kingdom
of God yourself you must come to its front
gate first — that is acknowledgement of and re-
pentance for your own sins. Without this you
can never enter the kingdom of God.

WHY IS SIN DREADFUL?

I take it for granted now that you are con-
vinced of your sins. Now you can see and
understand how all men without exception are
sinners. But some one may say at this point
— " All right, I am convinced now that I am a
sinner. I know that every man on earth is
also a sinner. What, then, does it matter to
us though we are all the blackest of sinners?
Why should we be so much afraid of sin?
Why is sin such a dreadful thing? I don't see

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 91

anything dreadful. Is not sin simply a mis-
deed or shortcoming, or weakness of human
nature ? Is it not all right, even after commit-
ting sin, if we are sorry for our misconduct
and try to correct it and reform our char-
acters ? Is it not the teaching of our old sages
that * If a man commit sin he must at once cor-
rect it without hesitation/ and that is all which
is required of us and no need of bothering our-
selves any further? If we only correct our
misdeeds and reform our characters all the
sins we have committed will be wiped out for-
ever, just like an ink spot from the face of a
man, or a dark film from the face of a mirror."

But no, my friends, sin is not such a light
thing. Sin is not like an ink spot or dark
film. Such illustrations are always mislead-
ing. You know illustrations are not truths, —
people sometimes mistake them for truths, —
but no, they are not truths in themselves ; they
are simply used to explain truths, and in many
cases they do not fully explain and make the
truths clear to people's minds. In some cases
they misinterpret and mislead people. This il-
lustration of an ink spot or dark film for sin
is a very good instance of a misleading illus-
tration.

Sin or crime, you know, is a legal term.
Read now the law books. What do you find

92 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

there? The laws says, " You must not steal."
But what if you have already stolen? Does
it say, " Correct your misdeed and you shall be
all right " ? No, the law says at once, " Such
shall be punished by an imprisonment of so
many years." The law says again, " You must
not kill." But what if you have already killed
some one? The law does not say, "Reform
your character and you shall be free." No; it
says again, " You shall be punished by death."

Yes, every law of the state has punishment
attached to the violation of the law. If there
is no punishment then the law is powerless.
Nobody would be afraid of violating the law
if no penalty were attached to its violation.
The reason people are so afraid of breaking
the law of the state is that if they do break it
they will be punished; no matter who they
may be there is no respect of persons in the
eyes of the law, although some lawbreakers
may manage to escape punishment for a time.
Every lawbreaker must sometime receive his
due recompense. And there are two ways of
executing the punishment — the police and the
prisons. If it were not for these two well-
known means of executing the laws of the
state they would be quite powerless.

So, you see, sins can not be looked upon as
such light things as some people would like,

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 93

for they will surely bring sooner or later upon
the offenders a terrible punishment.

heaven's punishment

Right here some one may raise another ob-
jection. " All right, we agree that the laws of
the state have punishment attached to them,
but how about the laws of heaven, even God's
laws ? Have they also punishment attached to
them ? Does heaven punish sinners as the state
punishes its offenders? And is heaven's pun-
ishment as direct and quick as the punishment
of the state?"

Yes, my friends, there is a swift and sure
punishment from God in this world. Every-
body knows that. We have the word Tenbatsu
[Heaven's punishment] in our language, which
has been in use from very old times. What
does Tenbatsu mean? It means precisely pun-
ishment from heaven. It is not punishment by
the state. It is not punishment by man. It is
punishment by the King of Heaven.

Everybody in this country fears that Ten-
batsu. And very often it comes swiftly and
soon. And nobody can escape it. We also
speak of the heavenly net whose meshes at
first sight look very big, but on close examina-
tion we find them to be very small, so that even
the tiniest fish can not pass through them.

94. THE THREE HOUR SERMON

Now all these sayings establish our belief
in punishment from heaven for our sins. It is
clearly stated in the law of God that even an
idle word which a man utters on earth will not
escape its deserved punishment in the day of
judgment.

I must make a few remarks about this pun-
ishment from heaven.

If you regard man simply as an earthly crea-
ture whose existence ceases at the end of this
life, then it seems as if there are imperfections
in this punishment from heaven and much in-
justice. Not always in this world are good
men honoured and bad men disgraced. Not
always do honest men get wealthy and dis-
honest men become poor. Not always are the
righteous prosperous and the wicked unfortu-
nate. Do we not often find the reverse of it?
How was it in the case of our national hero
Kusunoki Masashige?

. Though he was a good man, loved and hon-
oured by all men of the country, his family did
not continue even for three generations.
Whereas, Ashikaga Takauji, the founder of
the Ashikaga Shogunate, whom every Japa-
nese knows to have been a bad man, was so
fortunate as to have his descendants for fifteen
generations rulers of Japan. His family pros-
pered while the other family was short-lived.

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 95

Because of such instances as these there are
many men who doubt the existence of heavenly
punishment or heavenly justice.

They say this world is ruled by chance or
fate and not by the wise providence of God.

Of course many good people have tried to
explain these seeming injustices. I have heard
many explanations myself, but I confess I am
not satisfied with them.

As long as you regard men as creatures be-
longing to this world alone for whom there is
no future life, you can never explain this vexed
question. But I believe that man is not created
for this world alone. Man has his future life
also. He has an existence beyond the grave.
Our earthly life is simply a pilgrimage to that
life. We are simply travellers in this world.
And our pilgrimage on this earth lasts only
fifty or seventy years, but our life in the next
world is eternal. What are these short periods
of fifty or seventy years of our earthly pil-
grimage compared with that eternal life of the
next world? Can they be compared? This
present life when it is passed will seem like a
half-forgotten dream of the night.

LIFE IS A VOYAGE

Moreover, the very object of our coming
into the world is not achieved in this present

96 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

life. Here we are simply voyaging to the next
world where our real destinies lie.

Suppose you go to Yokohama and buy a
ticket for America and get on board the ship.
It will take about twenty days to cross the
ocean. And now during those twenty days
of your sea voyage to America you will meet
with all kinds of experiences, good and bad,
pleasant and unpleasant. Some days you may
have dancing, music, moving pictures, theatri-
cal performances and various other enjoy-
ments. Surely you will have a good time. But
at the same time you must be prepared to meet
unpleasant experiences too. But whether good
or bad, pleasant or unpleasant, it is only for
the twenty days, that is all. When you get to
America you will forget all these experiences,
or perhaps remember vaguely for a time.
These are not the object of your voyage. You
did not buy your ticket for America to enjoy
the ship life. Your object was not on the
boat. What was your object in going to
America ? Were you not going there for study
or for business or on a visit ? Surely, you had
some reason for going there and for which you
made your sea voyage of twenty days. The
voyage was simply a means to reach the end
you had in view.

So, I think, our life on earth is a voyage.

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 97

When we were born we all bought tickets for
our voyage and entered the ship of life. We
are all on board the ship of life now. Every-
one of us has a ticket in his hand which entitles
him to the eternal haven at the other end of
this early life. And now I think some of you
are already far out on the ocean. Perhaps
many of you have already gone as far as
Hawaii. Old folks like myself may be almost
within sight of the Golden Gate. May be there
are some among you who will reach your des-
tiny tonight. We can not tell. We do not
know how near we are to that eternal haven.

I see many young people here tonight. Per-
haps you may be saying to yourselves, " Oh
no, we are not so near to that haven, — cer-
tainly we are yet very far out. We have
plenty of years to live yet on this earth. We
need not yet bother about our arrival there.
We are quite safe for awhile."

But no, my young friends, even you are not
safe. How many of our young people are
dying now very early in life. No, no, not one
is safe from that final call from heaven.
Maybe the youngest of my hearers tonight will
hear that call before the next dawn.

Moreover, life is very short on this earth.
It is like the twinkling of an eye. It is a
dream of the night. When I was young I said

98 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

to myself : " Oh, I have a long voyage yet to
make. I need not hurry. I need not bother
myself about the future life. I have plenty of
time to deal with such matters in the future."
And now I am sixty-three years old. Do not
people say that fifty years is the ordinary
length of a man's life here on earth? Then I
have passed already thirteen years beyond the
span of the ordinary human life. But how
quickly it has passed. How short it seems to
me, after all. When I look back upon the
years of my life I feel that human life is but
a dream. When it is passed it seems like the
twinkling of an eye.

Moreover, when it is passed it becomes
valueless. Good and bad, pleasant and un-
pleasant, all look alike. I have had good times
as well as bad times. I have had happy
days as well as unhappy days. But when they
are passed they become altogether of no
account.

There are some old folks who are always
talking about the past. Their thoughts are
turned toward the past. They can not talk
about anything but their past deeds and past
events, and their conversation is not interest-
ing to young folks, because the young folks
are looking ahead while the old folks are look-
ing back.

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 99

But the real joy of life is not in the past; it
is in the hope of the future, and we are all
hastening to that land of our hopes.

THE JUDGMENT SEAT

When we get to the shore of the other world
where are we all going ? Can we go wherever
we wish to go ? Shall we still have freedom of
choice in selecting our eternal habitation?

No, my friends, then we have no freedom.
I tell you that there is but one place after death
whither we must all go without a single ex-
ception— and that is into the presence of God.
Every man when he reaches the shore of the
other world must appear at once before the
judgment seat of God. This is not the result
of choice but it is of necessity. Man may
talk of liberty and freedom as much as he
pleases, but there are two points in human life
where he has absolutely no choice. At both
ends of this life, entrance and exit, man has
absolutely no freedom to choose. Who on
earth has ever come into this world by his own
free choice? And who again can choose the
place to which he will go ? You were not born
in this city of Tokyo by your own free choice,
were you ? You did not come into this world
by your own will nor by the will of any man,
but by the will of the Almighty God who or-

100 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

dained you to be born into this world. And,
in the same way, you will not go out of this
world by your own choice, but you will be
taken away from this world by that final call
from heaven which no man on earth can resist.

Can kings or emperors, the mighty or the
wealthy resist this final call from heaven a
single moment?

When you appear before the judgment seat
of God you will receive your just recompense
for your life on this earth. Then if you are
found righteous and perfect you can enter into
the Kingdom of Heaven with joy and glad-
ness. And you shall enjoy eternal life in that
land of perfect peace and happiness.

But if, on the contrary, you are found sin-
ners and transgressors of the law of God, you
will be punished by being thrown into eternal
hell.

THERE IS A HELU

I tell you, my dear friends, there is a place
called hell in the future world, where all the
transgressors of the law of God shall be sent
in punishment for their sins. This is an eter-
nal truth and eternal fact.

I know there are many people, perhaps even
among you tonight, who say : " Oh, I do not
believe that there is any such place as hell in

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 101

the future world. That simply exists in the
imagination of certain religious people. Such
teachings are simply used for moral purposes,
for discouraging evil and encouraging good.
No intelligent man nowadays believes in such
things as hell and heaven in the future life.
That is the old-fashioned way of thinking."

Very well, if you do not believe in the exist-
ence of the future world I will not force that
belief upon you. Belief can not be forced on
any man by any means. But please be assured
of this, that whether you believe it or not, the
fact of the existence of the future world will
not be affected by your belief or unbelief.
Man's belief or unbelief has nothing to do with
the existence of hell. You may believe or dis-
believe anything you please, but that does not
change the fact. The sun which sets in the
West this evening will surely rise tomorrow
morning in the East. This is fact. The fact
you know can not be changed by your opinion.
You may dispute and deny other people's opin-
ions as much as you please, but you can not
deny the facts. A fact is indisputable. The
existence of the future world is fact. You
can not make or unmake it by your simple be-
lief or unbelief. Hell and heaven will rise be-
fore you when your soul sinks below the hori-
zon of this earthly life, just as surely as the

102 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

sun will rise tomorrow morning in the eastern
sky.

Be careful, then, lest when you die you be
thrown into hell, the existence of which you
denied in your ignorance.

Do you think that any country can be well
governed without having a hell in it ? Do you
think our beloved country would be in such a
state of peace and prosperity if she had no hell
within her limits? What, then, is this hell of
our country? Why, prisons are the hell of a
country. Every one who has broken the law
of the state shall be thrown into this hell.
You know the breaking of the law of the coun-
try is not a light thing, such as a fault or a
mistake which can be easily corrected. No,
breaking a law of the state is rebelHon against
the sovereignty of the country. So it deserves
the just recompense of being thrown into
prison. And because we have such places as
prisons in our country we can enjoy our pres-
ent state of peace and safety.

Suppose we had no prisons in our country.
Every one could do just as he pleased. He
could kill, he could steal, or burn down other
people's houses, and yet he could not be ar-
rested or punished for his misconduct because
there would be no police to arrest him and no
prison to confine him in. What would be the

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 103

condition of such a lawless country? Do you
think we could live in peace and safety even a
single day in such a country? No, no, if there
is no hell in the country the whole country will
become hell itself, and no one would want to
live in such a country.

Just so, when you go to the next world, you
will surely find a hell in that country. Every
one who has violated the laws of that King-
dom in this world shall be thrown into prison
in the next world. So that the Kingdom of
Heaven shall not be troubled by those evil
doers, and all the people of the Kingdom shall
live in peace and happiness for ever. All sin-
ners must be punished by eternal suffering.

Now this is the second fundamental truth
of Christianity.

PART III
CONCERNING SALVATION

WHAT IS SALVATION?

NOW we come to the third point, the last
but the most important of all.
This is the heart of Christianity.

I hope you will be patient a little longer and
listen to me attentively because this is the most
difficult part of all and I will try to explain it
as clearly as I can. You have seen that the
first was on God and the second on sin, and
now the third is on salvation.

Salvation is the saving of man from sin and
its punishment. How can men be saved ? By
the vicarious sacrifice of Christ upon the cross.
There is no other way of salvation. Every
man must be saved by believing in the power
of the cross of Christ. Therefore, the doctrine
of atonement through the sacrifice of Christ
upon the cross is the most important doctrine
of all. If you can not fully understand this
central truth of Christianity you can never un-
derstand what Christianity is.

Christianity is not a mere collection of

moral teachings like the works of Confucius

and Mencius. It is not a mere code of ethics.

It is the way of salvation. And that way doe§

107

108 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

not merely lie in following the Christ as many
people think, but it lies in his blood shed upon
the cross. This is the very point in the Chris-
tian religion where people are apt to make a
mistake. They think men are to be saved by
becoming good through the teachings of
Christ They think that if they read the Bible,
study its teachings and keep its commandments
they will reform their character and become
good and righteous men and will then be saved.
In fact they think that they can be saved by
their own good works through the teacliings of
the Bible.

But this is a great mistake. We are not to
be saved by becoming good men. We must
be saved in order to become good men. Good
men are not going to be saved but saved men
are going to become good.

We must first of all be saved by believing
in the saving power of the cross of Christ,
then we will be made good men by following
the teachings of Christ. Salvation must come
first and then it will be easy to become good.
The cross first and after that the teaching.

Teachings are like nourishing food. They
are very good and necessary to keep up the
health of the body. But nourishing food can
not take the place of medicine. Do not de^
pend on nourishing food alone for the cure

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 109

of the sick. When people get sick they call,
first of all, a physician, and take medicine.
And then they take nourishing food to keep
them in health.

Just so, sinners are spiritually sick men. To
be saved from this spiritual sickness they must
send for the spiritual physician and take his
saving medicine, which is belief in the cross of
Christ. Then after that they will take and
greatly relish his nourishing food which is the
teachings and commandments of Christ.

That no one can be saved from the conse-
quences of sin by the mere following of moral
and religious teachings is very clear. In moral
and religious teachings themselves there is no
power to save a man from the consequences of
sin. He may repent of his sin and correct his
conduct as best he can, yet he can by no means
undo the wrong committed against another.

MIGAWARI— SUBSTITUTE

Take a case in the criminal court. For

example, if I kill a man tonight I shall be at
once arrested and sent to a court to be tried
by judges. And if I am found guilty I shall
be sentenced to death. I must die for taking
another man's life. That is the penalty of my
offence. I must pay it myself. And now

110 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

when I am put into prison to await execution
I find a Bible in the prison and reading it I
find the teachings of Christ about murder. I
repent of my conduct and determine to correct
it. " Oh," I say, " I have done wrong, I will
never do it again. I will correct my conduct
and will surely become a good man hereafter.'*

Now I appeal to the judge to pardon my of-
fence because I have truly repented and really
intend to reform my life hereafter.

Do you think the judge will pardon me be-
cause of my true repentance. Will he say,
" All right, if you really repent of your sin
and truly intend to reform your character, I
will pardon your offence. Now go in peace to
your home."

No, my friends, after the judge has once
pronounced sentence of death he can by no
means revoke it on such a ground as that.
No matter how truly you repent of your past
conduct and how sincerely you intend to re-
form your character hereafter, if you have
already killed a man you can never undo that
act of murder. You will be a murderer for-
ever. You can never change it — you can
never get rid of the stain. This evil deed can
never be undone. So you see, crime must
receive its deserved punishment.

However, if you ask me, is there absolutely

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 111

no way of saving a murderer's life, I say yes,
there was in the olden time one way of saving
such a murderer's life. That was by Migch
wari — a substitute. An innocent person tak-
ing on himself the offence of the criminal and
dying in his stead. For instance, in case I
murdered a man and am sentenced to death,
my friend offers to take my punishment and
die in my place — this is Migawari. Of course
in the present time we have no such provision
in our criminal law. No Migawari is allowed.
But in the old days we had frequent cases of
this substitution.

For example, the son died in his father's
place, the servant died for his master, the
friend for his friend, and so on. When a
father was sentenced to death for a crime his
son stepped in and said to the judge, " It was
not my father who committed this offence, it
was I, so please sentence me to death in his
stead." Thus the son died in the father's stead
and the father was saved. The son redeemed
the father's life.

Is not that the strongest proof of a son's af-
fection for his father? Can any one have
greater love than this — to lay down his life for
another?

In the old days of feudalism we had fre-
quent cases of faithful retainers dying in the

112 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

lord's stead, thus redeeming their master's life
with their own. This is regarded as the high-
est expression of loyalty to a master. These
are the best examples of the two fundamental
virtues of our national morality, namely, loy-
alty and filial piety.

Christ also said, " Greater love hath no man
than this, that a man lay down his life for his
friend."

Yes, Migawari is the noblest virtue of man-
kind. No man can go farther than that.

JESUS IS OUR MIGAWARI

Now if you look at the cross of Christ from
this viewpoint you can easily understand the
meaning of salvation of men through the cross
of Christ. The death of Christ is the Mi^o
wari of all mankind. He died in our stead.

As I told you before, we have all sinned.
Sinners must be punished. Sin once com-
mitted can not be wiped out. It must receive
its due recompense. Though you may repent
of your past conduct ever so deeply and try to
reform your character, your mere repentance
and reformation of character can never wipe
out your sin. That sin cleaves to you forever
and claims its just recompense. Therefore, the
only way of being saved from the consequences
of your sin is by Migawari which is substi-

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 113

tution. Some one must die in your stead.
Some one must atone for your sin. Otherwise
you can never be saved.

But no human being can do this for another.
All men are sinners. Sinners can not save sin-
ners. Sages or saints, they can not atone for
the sins of another.

Confucius was one of the greatest sages
that this world has ever produced, and he has
left us many wise sayings and useful precepts.
But as he was human he was also a sinner be-
fore God as we all are. So even Confucius
could not atone for our sins. And even in his
teachings he has refrained from speaking too
freely about heaven and the future life. Be-
cause he was human and his knowledge was
limited to this world.

I think Confucius was quite right and quite
honest in refraining from talking about things
which he did not know with certainty.

But here you might ask again: How could
one man, even Christ, perform this Migawari
and be a substitute for all mankind for all ages ?
Is it not quite unthinkable that one man could
take away all the sins of all mankind from the
beginning of the world unto its very end ?

But listen ! Christ is not a mere man. He
is not merely the greatest of all sages. He is
not merely the greatest of all saints. He is not

114 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

simply the greatest and best man that this
world has ever seen. Some people want to
consider Christ as the highest type of human-
ity. But they are tremendously mistaken.
Christ is more than man, more even than the
greatest and highest man in the world. Christ
is the only begotten Son of God. In fact
Christ is God.

" In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and the Word was God.
— All things were made through Him; and
without Him was not anything made that was
made."

This whole universe was created by and
through Christ. So you see the Bible teaches
that Christ is very God. And this very God
of heaven and earth came down to this earth
which He had made and became a man and
dwelt among men, in order to save men from
their sins. And He taught us the truth about
God and about heaven and the future life.
Because He being God knows all about these
things.

" No man hath seen God at any time ; the
only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the
Father, He hath declared Him."

No human being can teach the whole truth
about God ; none but the only begotten Son of
the Father,

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 115

You see now there is an infinite distance
between this Son of God who knows every-
thing in heaven and earth, and these great
sages of the ancient world who refrained from
talking about the unknown things of heaven.
Indeed, such a difference as that between
heaven and earth.

Christ not only taught us the truth about
God. He also lived the very life of God upon
the earth and He died the very death of sinners
upon the cross. As He is God, of course there
was no sin found in him. He knew no sin
himself. Yet He took upon himself all our
sins and was made a substitute for us and died
in our place and stead. And of course He can
be made the substitute for all mankind because
He is Almighty God, and Almighty God must
be greater than this little insignificant world
of human beings. Therefore He was able to
make full restitution for the sins of all man-
kind for all ages.

And now, as Christ has died in our stead
upon the cross, we are made free from sin, just
as in my last illustration of a friend's dying in
my stead I was made free from the guilt of
murder.

So now, all those who believe in Christ and
accept His vicarious sacrifice upon the cross,
will be made free from all sins and conse-

116 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

quently from all penalties of sin. Our sins
are now forgiven. They are atoned for by His
death upon the cross.

So now by trusting in the efficiency of
Christ's atoning sacrifice, we are saved from
going to hell as the punishment for sin com-
mitted in this world, and instead of going to
hell we are entitled to enter into the Kingdom
of Heaven and there enjoy eternal bliss.

BLOOD-SEALED COVENANT

Now, this is what is meant by salvation
through Christ. So you see we are not saved
by the teachings of Christ but by His blood
shed upon the cross. Of course, after we are
saved by the blood of Christ we need the teach-
ings of Christ also. Just as a sick man needs
nourishing food after he has been cured by
medicine.

Now as this is the most important of all the
doctrines of Christianity, I hope you will un-
derstand it. Christ did not save us by His
mere preaching and teaching. He was not a
mere preacher of righteousness. He did not
simply say : " Do good and abstain from evil
and you shall be saved." No, He saved us in
spite of our evil doings and sinful acts. And
He did it, not.by words but by deeds, even by
the shedding of His blood upon the cross.

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 117

Indeed, the very secret of the power of
Christianity lies here. It does not lie in His
>vise sayings but in His shedding of blood.

As you know, blood is' the symbol in some
countries of the power to make a man sacrifice
his life. It is the drop of red blood which
binds a man to keep his covenant, even at the
risk of his own Hfe.

You remember when the forty-seven re-
tainers of the prince of Ako took that solemn
oath to revenge their master's death by taking
the life of his enemy, after they had signed
their names to this covenant they sealed it with
their own blood, thus making the covenant a
blood-covenant (shi wo kisseru) even unto
death. Each one of the forty-seven pledged
himself to give his life for the accomplishment
of this great purpose. And all actually did
give their lives in remaining true to their
pledge.

Now Christ made a covenant with us for
the salvation of our souls. The covenant is
this : Whosoever believes on Him shall be
saved from sin and its penalty, no matter how
great a sinner he may be. And this covenant
He sealed with His blood.

Now you see that the religion of Christ is
a blood-covenant religion, and such a religion
can make its believers willing to risk life itself.

118 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

Christians do not simply profess their belief
with their mouths, but they defend their faith
with their lives.

Every one who becomes a Christian pledges
himself to sacrifice his life if necessary for the
Christ he follows. Christ required his fol-
lowers to do this. He said, " If any man
would come after me, let him take up his
cross and follow me." That is, be ready to die
for Him, even upon the cross.

The disciple must follow the example of his
teacher. If the teacher has laid down his life
for others the disciple must be ready to do the
same. Christians must be ready to lay down
their lives, not for the Master's sake alone, but
for the sake of those whom their master loves,
even the sinners of the world. In a word, the
true Christian is a man of sacrifice, willing
even to die upon the cross in the service of God
and man.

SPIRIT OF SACRIFICE

I desire that our nation, as a nation, should
be filled with this spirit of sacrifice. Our
people are noted for their spirit of sacrifice in
times of great emergency. When our country
is in danger every man is ready to take up
arms and fight till death if need be. Such a
spirit is worthy of high praise.

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 119

But nowadays everybody knows the import-
ance of such public spirit. Everywhere people
are showing their public spirit in their coun-
try's emergency. Such a spirit of patriotism is
not peculiar to our country. The last great
world war has conclusively proved that almost
every nation of the civilized world has this
spirit of patriotism when any great emergency
calls for it.

But what I am saying here is not of the
spirit of patriotism, however great it may be.
The true spirit of sacrifice makes people will-
ing to give up their lives for a righteous cause
at any time, whether in time of war or in time
of peace, whether in high public positions or in
ordinary life.

Every statesman should be ready to sacri-
fice his life for the welfare of the state at any
time. Every educator should be ready to stake
his life for the sake of education. Every re-
ligious teacher should be ready to die for the
spiritual welfare of his countrymen. Parents
should be ready to sacrifice their lives for the
children, and children should be ready to sacri-
fice their lives for the parents. Husbands for
wives and wives for husbands. What would
we say if a husband should save his own life
leaving his wife at the mercy of a murderer?
And we all expect that the captain of a ship

120 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

shall be always ready to sacrifice his life for
the safety of his passengers. If in time of
shipwreck the captain should leave the boat
before the passengers, what would be said of
such a man ?

I believe there is nothing in this world so
noble and so beautiful as this spirit of sacrifice.
I wish that our countrymen could be filled with
this spirit, and that not for our country alone
but for the benefit of all mankind. Japan
today must not live for herself alone, nor for
the Far East alone, but for the whole world.

But to make a people capable of such sacri-
fice we need the religion of sacrifice. We need
a religion sealed with the blood of its founder.
Formal religions are of no avail.

You know that for many years I have been
lecturing on various subjects throughout the
empire. I have been lecturing on politics, on
economy, on education, on social reform, and
so on. But now I have laid aside all other
subjects and am only preaching this blood-
sealed religion of Christ throughout the length
and breadth of the country. I have deter-
mined not to know anything among my coun-
trymen but this Jesus Christ and Him cruci-
fied. Because I believe there is nothing else in
heaven or on earth that can save a man from
sin and its penalty. And there is nothing on

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 121

earth that can change a man from a creature
of selfishness into an angel of sacrifice. The
only way of making our people a people of
sacrifice for the benefit of all mankind, is this
blood-sealed religion of Christianity.

THE PERSECUTED RELIGION

But here one might ask, " Does Christianity
really produce such a people? Is there really
such power in the rehgion of Christ? Do
Christians show this spirit of sacrifice any
more than heathens ? "

Yes, Christianity has proved its power by
its history during nineteen hundred years.
Among all the religions of the world none has
suffered such severe persecution at the hands
of its enemies as Christianity. No other re-
ligion has ever produced so many martyrs as
the religion of Christ.

When Christianity was first introduced into
the Roman Empire how cruelly those Roman
people treated the followers of that religion!
For many centuries they persecuted all Chris-
tians in the most cruel manner. They were
burned alive, thrown into dens of lions and
crucified. The Romans tried in every way to
extinguish Christianity, but they could not ac-
complish their purpose. The more they per-
secuted the more it spread and the more its

122 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

followers increased. The blood of the martyrs
became the seed of the church in the Roman
Empire.

We have the story of cruel persecution of
Christianity by the Tokugawa Shoguns in our
own country. For more than two centuries
the Tokugawas cruelly persecuted the believers
in the Christian religion. In one place we are
told that many holes were dug in the ground
for the purpose of burying the Christians alive.
In these holes they were buried up to their
necks. Then the executioners came with their
saws in their hands saying, " Now, Christians,
will you renounce your faith in this evil re-
ligion of Christ and be dug out of this hole and
be saved? Or, will you still hold to your
faith and have your heads sawed off? Which
will you do ? "

Thus each one was threatened in turn. To
the surprise of the executioners no one was
frightened by their threats. They all said they
would lose their heads rather than renounce
their faith in Christ, because He had died upon
the cross for them. So then the Christians
lost their lives in this terrible manner. It is
said there were many women among these
poor Christians who were persecuted in this
way. Women are weak by nature, they dread
physical pain more than men; but even these

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 123

timid women faced this terrible death with
calmness and faith.

POWER OF THE CROSS

My friends, how do you account for this?
Whence came this courage and firmness of
these early Christians? I tell you the only
source of such courage and firmness is in the
cross of Christ. By the cross of Christ the
weak become strong, cowards turn into brave
men and timid women become fearless.

If you truly understand the real meaning of
the cross of Christ you can conquer all things
by the power of that cross.

The cross of Christ is really power unto
salvation. No matter how wicked a man has
been if he really understands the dying love of
Jesus upon the cross, his heart will be melted
and he will become a new man in Christ.

I know many such cases of reformation in
wicked men. In one place there was a man
who had determined to kill another man and
as he was on his way to do it, he passed by
a Christian meeting place. Stepping in for a
few minutes he heard the preacher tell of the
dying love of Jesus Christ. This touched the
man's heart and melted it with the fire of
love. He flung away his revolver that he had
concealed in his pocket, and confessed hi§ 3m

124 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

and became a follower of Christ that night.
From that time on instead of killing men he
sought to save them, and died, as I was told,
in actual service for others.

" For the preaching of the cross of Christ
is to them that perish foolishness, but to us
which are saved, it is the power of God."

Yes, there is power in the cross of Christ.
The power not only to save sinners from the
penalty of sin, but also to save them from the
power of sin and make them new men in
Christ. And why is it so? Because as you
know, the cross of Christ is the perfect revela-
tion of the infinite love of God.

" For God so loved the world that he gave
his only begotten son that whosoever believeth
on him should not perish but have eternal life."

Love, you know, is power. Love can con-
quer all things. No power on earth can over-
come it. It can overcome everything. It can
melt the hard hearts of wicked men.

DR. JOSEPH NEESHIMA

Let me illustrate the power of love to melt
the heart of man by an example which I am
glad to speak of here tonight. You all know,
I suppose, the first president of the Doshisha
University in Kyoto was Dr. Joseph Neeshima.
He is counted among the three great edu-

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 125

cators of the era of Meiji (the reign of the
late emperor).

Fukuzawa Ukichi, Nakamura Keinu and
Joseph Neeshima, were the three : I am glad to
say that I personally knew all these great
teachers. But of these three I was most inti-
mately connected with Dr. Neeshima. I was
a student in his school in those early days of
Doshisha. But afterward I was called back by
him to teach in the school and to be his assist-
ant. I worked with him many years until the
very day he left us for the better land. So you
see I ought to know him pretty well. Yes, I
can say I knew him best of all.

Dr. Neeshima was a great man, but his
greatness did not lie in his knowledge nor in
his intellectual power. He was not an espe-
cially eloquent man. He was not a fine writer.
He left no book behind him. His greatness lay
in his lofty character. His was a great person-
ality. Indeed, he had a big heart, full of love.
He loved his students as his own children. He
was in truth a loving teacher. And his great-
ness lay indeed in his great love for his
students.

TRUE EDUCATOR

I think every educator ought to have this
qualification. Without this kind of love he

126 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

can not become a successful teacher of young
people. Of course, to become a teacher one
must have knowledge to impart, and mental
power to lead and guide his pupils. In a
word, he must be a man of learning and of
mental ability. Without these qualifications
he can not become a real teacher. But even
with these essential qualifications if he has not
real love for his pupils he can not become an
efficient teacher. If a teacher shows that he
has no such true love for his students I think
he had better give up the profession of teach-
ing and engage in some other work.

You know when we send our children to
school to get an education, we commit them
entirely into the hands of their teachers. We
ask these teachers to make useful men and
women out of these crude untaught children
for the country's sake. Perhaps it might be
better if we could keep our children in our own
homes and teach them ourselves, thus training
them according to our own wishes and desires.
But that is impossible. We parents can not
undertake such a task ourselves. So we ask
the teachers to do it for us. And they are
undertaking this difficult task of making men
and women and good citizens of our children.

If therefore teachers are really doing the
work of the parents they should have the same

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 127

parental affection for the children. Without
this affection how can they take such a difficult
task upon themselves and accomplish it to the
satisfaction of the state?

But, if you say, " Oh, no, no, the work of a
teacher is not such a great task as you think.
The work of a teacher is to impart some of the
special knowledge which he himself has ac-
quired to the young people who come under his
care. It is nothing more. Man-making and
character building are not the essential work
of a teacher. To expect anything beyond this
passing on of knowledge is to expect too much
from the teacher of the present day."

Well, if educators simply content themselves
with selling their knowledge for wages of
course I have nothing more to say. I am sorry
to see that some of them do, though they do
not openly confess such thoughts. There are
at the present day many teachers among us
who are simply selling their knowledge for
their own profit, and for the sake of our coun-
try I am sorry to see this.

But if on the contrary our educators under-
take, for the parents, the difficult task of mak-
ing good men and women and good citizens
out of their children, they must first of all pre-
pare themselves for their work with true
parental affection.

128 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

I know that President Neeshima was truly
such a loving teacher. I know several in-
stances in his life which revealed this love.
When we were dissatisfied or discouraged with
anything in the school, we used to go to our
president to complain of such troubles. He
was always glad to receive us. And while we
were talking with him all our dissatisfaction
and discontent seemed to melt away in his
sunny kindly presence, just as ice melts under
the warmth of the sun's rays. There was some
mysterious power in our president which no
man could resist.

STUDENT STRIKE

Once during the presidency of Dr. Nee-
shima there was a great disturbance in the
Doshisha, caused by friction between teachers
and students. The whole school was thrown
into disorder. There was a great strike among
the students. The president tried in every way
to conciliate both parties. But even he could
not succeed in his task of reconciliation. When
every hope of bringing the school to order was
gone, it was decided as a last resort to expell
the disturbing elements from the school.
There was no other way but to apply this
extreme form of discipline.

One morning when all the teachers and stu-

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 129

dents were assembled in the chapel the presi-
dent came in with a cane in his hand. Whis-
perings were heard — " Why, the president has
a cane, he has come into chapel with a cane in
his hand/' As soon as he came in he stood
before the school and said — " Gentlemen, I
am sorry to see such a disturbance in the
school. It is a disgrace to Doshisha. But, as
such a disturbance has arisen we must punish
the person or persons who are responsible for
it, so this morning I will punish the offender."
Of course everybody expected the president
was going to punish the ringleaders of the riot-
ing. But, the president continued to speak.
" But," he said, " gentlemen, I can not lay this
responsibility upon any of the students, neither
upon any of the teacher3. Then who is re-
sponsible? If neither students nor teachers
are responsible for this disturbance, upon
whom shall this responsibility fall ? I will tell
you. The person who is wholly responsible
for this great disturbance in Doshisha is this
Joseph Neeshima, its president. It is the duty
of a president to govern his school and keep it
in good order. Now this president Neeshima
has failed to preserve order in his school; he
has failed in the discharge of his duty and thus
caused this great disturbance in Doshisha.
This disturbance has not only brought great

130 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

misfortune upon the students and has given
great trouble to the teachers, but it has brought
disgrace upon this institution. All this has
come as the consequence of the president's in-
ability to govern the school as he ought. So
now the whole responsibility must be laid upon
him, he must bear it and he must be pun-
ished."

As he finished speaking he lifted his cane in
his right hand and holding out his left hand he
began to strike it with all his might, again and
again. He struck his hand so hard that finally
the cane broke into three pieces, and you can
easily imagine its effect upon his hand. It
began to bleed and the whole school was taken
aback. How could they any longer endure
such a sight.

One of the students rushed up to the presi-
dent's side and seizing his arm began to cry,
" Oh, my teacher ! my teacher ! " This cry
broke up the whole school. Teachers and stu-
dents all burst into tears and wept aloud. It
was a wonderful sight indeed. The president
with his hand bleeding and the whole school
weeping!

Why did he punish himself? Was there
anything in his conduct which deserved such
treatment as this? A man of love, with his
heart full of fatherly affection for his students,

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 131

most faithfully working day and night for the
welfare of the school? What fault could you
find in such a man as that?

No, no, we could find no fault in him. He
was indeed respected and honoured and loved
by the whole school. Though the students rose
in rebellion it was not against the president but
against the teachers of the school. In fact, the
president had had nothing whatever to do with
the uprising, and the whole school knew that.
Why then being a faultless man should he
punish himself before the whole school?

There was no need of explanation. Every-
body understood that the president was per-
forming Migawari — substituting for his stu-
dents. Those students had transgressed the
laws of the school, they knew that. And
transgressors must be punished. The inflict-
ing of severe punishment upon the rebellious
students was the only way by which the school
could be kept in order. Therefore as the presi-
dent of the school he must punish them and
expell them. There was no other way to take.
But Dr. Neeshima was not simply a president,
an administrator of the school. He was the
real father of his students in interest and af-
fection, loving them as his own children. How
could he strike his beloved children even in
punishment? So you see he was placed be-

132 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

tween two fires — ^justice and love. But love
gained the day. He decided to be wounded
for their transgressions ; to be bruised for their
iniquities; to take upon himself the chastise-
ment of their sins. And thus with his stripes
their wounds were healed.

THE POWER OF LOVE

By this act of love the hearts of the erring
students were entirely changed. No longer the
rebels of yesterday, they were the most faith-
ful and devoted students of the whole school.
They began to say, *' If our president loves us
so much as not to spare himself even such suf-
fering as this, should we not love him more ? "
" We are ready to give our lives, if need be,
for such a president," they said.

Yes, for a good man, a man with true love,
men sometimes venture to die.

Afterwards those rebellious students had
their picture taken in commemoration of this
memorable event. They grouped themselves
around a table upon which were the three
pieces of the broken cane. The spirit of the
school was changed. All friction between
teachers and students vanished entirely. Ill
feelings among the students were all gone.
The school was melted into one harmonious
whole by this love of the president. Yes, it

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 133

was born again, and became an entirely new
school. Discipline was restored, order was
kept and the dignity of the school was greater
than ever. We all had witnessed the power
of love.

Dr. Neeshima was not naturally a very elo-
quent man. But when he preached he was
quite often in tears. These tears were power-
ful sermons and we were all moved by them.
But this silent sermon of the bleeding hand
was the most powerful sermon that revered
teacher ever preached.

And now, my friends, whence do you think
Dr. Neeshima obtained such a loving heart?
Whence did he get this idea of substitution?
Of course he got it from the cross of Christ. I
knew him very well. He believed in the cross
of Christ. He not only believed in the cross
of Christ but he also tried to bear the
cross of Christ in himself. Yes, he did show
the cross in this case. I think the true Chris-
tian must not only believe in the cross but must
bear the same cross in himself. We must all
be followers of the crucified Jesus. It is not
necessary to do what Dr. Neeshima did, but
we m.ust be ready to bear the cross in our own
way and in our own circumstances.

Christianity is the religion of love. And its
perfect example was given upon the cross of

134. THE THREE HOUR SERMON

Christ. He taking upon Himself all the sin of
the world and dying in our stead upon the
cross is the greatest personification of the love
of God. And His love is now melting the
hearts of the whole world.

CRUCIFIXION AND HARITSUKE

You all know, I suppose, what crucifixion
is? In our country we used to call it Hari-
tsuke. But what we know in this country as
Haritsuke, crucifixion, is different from cruci-
fixion in the time of Christ.

In our country crucifixion was in this man-
ner. The criminal was tied with cords to the
crossed pieces of wood and then he was pierced
on each side with a spear. It must be a terrible
thing to be tied to a cross and pierced with a
spear. But a man pierced in the side with a
spear dies instantly. The pain and suffering
though intense are but for a moment, and then
all is finished.

But crucifixion in the time of Christ was not
of this kind. In those days before a criminal
was crucified he was stripped and scourged
with rods. This Roman rod was made of sev-
eral strips of leather on the ends of which
were pieces of ivory to make the scourging
more severe and painful. After this cruel
scourging the cross on which the man was to

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 135

be crucified was bound on his back and he
was dragged along to the place of execution.
There he was stripped of all his clothing and
laid upon the cross, his hands outstretched, and
the naihng began. For he was not merely tied
with cords to the cross, he was actually nailed
to the cross. Large iron nails, especially made
for that purpose, were driven with a hammer
right through the palms of both hands. That
finished, the feet were nailed in the same man-
ner. Sometimes the nails were driven through
both feet together, but quite often each foot
was nailed separately. And now after the vic-
tim was nailed securely to the cross, it was
raised so that the weight of the body hung
from these cruel nails.

Here is another difference between our
Haritsuke and crucifixion in the time of Christ.
In Haritsuke the man is killed instantly with a
spear. But in the time of Christ the man was
not killed instantly by either spear or sword.
He was kept hanging on the cross to die of
the most excruciating pain. Have you ever
stuck a needle into your hand? Did it not
cause intense pain ? Think then what it would
mean to have a spike driven through both
hands and feet. Can you imagine the pain
caused by such cruel treatment? And to have
this suffering prolonged until at last when it

136 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

became unendurable the victim would cry out,
" Kill me, kill me and end my pain/' If by a
spear thrust or a sword cut you should put an
end to his suffering at once you would be show-
ing him great mercy.

But in those times no one would do that.
The object of crucifixion was not to take life
but to inflict pain and suffering; so they left
the victim hanging on the cross until he died a
slow death of agony. Sometimes the victim
lingered several days in an agony of pain.
There is no death more painful than this death
on the cross. Death by a spear thrust or by
fire comes quickly, and death by hanging is
instantaneous; but death on the cross as
in the old time method is a lingering
agony.

Now, my friends, when we say that Jesus
Christ died upon the cross it ijieans that He
died this lingering, this most agonizing death.
We do not know what spiritual suffering He
endured upon the cross. Of course His spir-
itual suffering must have been the greatest of
all His suffering. But that is beyond our com-
prehension. We can never know the real
nature of that spiritual agony. But we can
understand His bodily suffering. We can
even feel it if we will. It is enough for us
to know that He endured this agonizing death

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 137

upon the cross for us, even to save us from
sin and eternal suffering.

Jesus was not a sinner. They found no
fault in Him. But He took upon Himself our
sins. God laid all our sins upon His dear Son
and redeemed us from death by this sacrifice.

Now, this is salvation. I hope you have
understood it fully.

REPENTANCE

I told you a few minutes ago about Dr. Nee-
shima's striking his own hand with his cane
and thus saving his students from receiving
their just punishment. As you heard that
story you all seemed to be very much im-
pressed. I noticed some of you were in tears.
And I thank you for your sympathy with my
dear teacher.

But I think no one of you here tonight was
personally acquainted with Dr. Neeshima.
This incident took place more than thirty-five
years ago. Moreover, perhaps you have no
connection with the University of Doshisha.
The true love which my beloved teacher
showed upon that occasion has even now the
power of melting people's hearts, people who
never knew him and whom he did not know.
This is indeed a wonderful quality of love.

But, my friends, Dr. Neeshima only struck

138 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

his left hand until it bled a little. His was not
great suffering at all. Yet everywhere I tell
this story people are affected by it and shed
tears.

It was not so with our Lord. It was not a
mere striking of the hand until it bled. Our
Lord was crucified. He was nailed to the cross
in the most cruel manner. His hands and His
feet were pierced with iron spikes. He was
crowned with thorns. His whole body was
mutilated and bleeding from that scourging re-
ceived at the hands of the merciless Roman
soldiers.

Now, my dear friends, if your hearts are
touched by this story of Dr. Neeshima's slight
suffering for his students, and if you could
shed tears for him with whom you have no
connection, how is it with this great suffering
of your Saviour, Jesus Christ, who died not
for some unknown students, but for you, to
save you from eternal suffering ? Can you shed
tears for Him and His suffering? Of course
you will shed tears if you take it to heart. But
the shedding of tears is not enough. For
Christ died to save you from sin. Repent of
your sin, I beg of you my friends, and accept
His offering of salvation through His cross.
Be cleansed and purified by His blood. And
come back, come back to your Heavenly Father

GOD, SIN AND SALVATION 139

once more as His dear children. This is salva-
tion through the death of Christ upon the cross.

DECIDE FOR CHRIST

'And now, my friends, I hope you have all
understood what Christianity is and what you
ought to do.

First, you must believe in the one true living
God.

Secondly, you must acknowledge your sin
and repent of it.

Thirdly, you must believe in the sacrifice of
Christ upon the cross. You must believe in the
efficacy of His atonement. You must accept
Hinj as your Saviour and decide to follow Him
in life or death.

And one thing more, that is when you be-
come a follower of Christ you must not be-
come so only in name, but in deed. You must
in your daily life have the real spirit of this
sacrificial death of Christ upon the cross. You
must also carry your own cross in your daily
life. You must be ready to sacrifice your own
life for the sake of your fellowmen.

And now if you have fully understood all
these points that I have tried to make clear
to you, and wish to become followers of
Christ, I think now is the time for you to make
your decision for Christ. I will now give each

140 THE THREE HOUR SERMON

one of you a decision card, and if you really
decide to accept Christianity as your religion
and to follow Jesus Christ as your Lord and
Master in life and death, will you please sign
your name on that card, giving also your full
address and the church which you prefer to
attend?

It is very important for you to attend some
church regularly and receive still further in-
struction in the Christian religion.

Tonight I have given you only the elemen-
tary knowledge of Christianity. You must not
stop here, but inquire further into the deep
things of the Christian religion. For that
deeper knowledge of God you must go to
church and learn of Him.

May God bless your decision here tonight.

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